Gundam Seed: Kira's Rebirth
by EmperorDraco7
Summary: During a battle gone horribly wrong, a strange accident sends Kira Yamato back to the past. With the knowledge of the future, will he be able to change the events of the Cosmic Era? AU, K/F
1. Second Chances

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Seed or Gundam Seed Destiny at all. Also I am sorry for a long hiatus in writing stories and updates as real life things got the better of me so I just wanted to let you know that I'm not dead though updates would be slow for a while because of things happening.

Gundam Seed: Kira's Rebirth

By EmperorDraco7 and co-written by Lily Nadesico

It was March 15, Cosmic Era 77, three years had passed since the end of the Second Bloody Valentine War and everyone thought that with Chairwoman Lacus Clyne of the PLANTs and Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Attha of Orb, there would be complete peace. Unfortunately last year, war had been declared between the Earth Alliance and the PLANTs due to the assassination of the Atlantic Federation president but this time, the Earth Alliance were more of a threat than they were in the previous war and their new tactics have ultimately led to the destruction of the PLANTs and the eradication of almost all of the Coordinators.

In the depths of space, a battle was taking place between the ZAFT/Orb forces and the Earth Alliance. Both sides showed no mercy towards each other as ships, mobile suits and mobile armors being destroyed during the conflict. However to one ZAFT commander Kira Yamato, it was a complete and horrific disaster as he fought against a newly created Earth Alliance Gundam with the Strike Freedom badly damaged and missing several DRAGOON units and one of the beam rifles. Terminal had tried to intervene and stop the Earth Alliance and ZAFT from destroying each other but were unsuccessful as the Terminal forces had been decimated by the Earth Alliance's army of Destroys, mobile armors and mobile suits, leaving only Kira remaining alive but barely.

"Where are your allies now, Space Monster?" asked the pilot while laughing and using one beam sword to block one of Kira's slashes before using the other saber to slice off the Strike Freedom's left arm. "Your precious mobile suit shackles us no longer…." The enemy Gundam kicked its opponent away and destroying two more DRAGOON units with ease. "Is that the best you got?"

"Damn you!" screamed Kira, his eyes dilated due to being in SEED Mode. He swore to kill that bastard for taking the lives of his friends, sister and most importantly his fiancée Lacus, the girl he grew to love and was about to marry until the Third Bloody Valentine War began. This led to his combined beam sabers clashing with the beam swords of his foe, hatred filling his eyes. "You're going to pay for killing the people I cared about!"

"You're one to talk! You took the life of my niece during the First War and you talk to me about killing people you care about?"

This caught Kira off guard and it gave the enemy pilot what he needed to use the railguns to blow the Strike Freedom away. "I'm very disappointed, you had fought in the first two wars but against me….. You are nothing. " The eyes of the black and red Gundam began glowing blood red as it clutched its swords and flew at the white, blue and red unit at top speed. "Your time has passed and the time has come for me to make this filthy race nothing but a memory!" With that said, the Gundam plunged its swords into the Strike Freedom's cockpit. _It is done… The Coordinators have been exterminated._

Kira gasped in horror as the swords went straight through his chest with blood spurting out of his chest, he had lost and with his death, there would be nothing to stop ZAFT and the Earth Alliance from destroying each other in the conflict at hand. As the Strike Freedom had begun to malfunction from the damage it received, he started thinking that the whole war was entirely his fault and that he did nothing to prevent it from happening.

Just as the Strike Freedom explodes, his final words were spoken…. "I…. I wish that none of this ever… happened…."

Suddenly various memories of Kira's experiences flashed as it went backwards showing brief images from the Second Bloody Valentine War and from the First Bloody Valentine War as well, more notedly his memories of his twin sister Cagalli Yula Athha, his best friend Athrun Zala and surprisingly his late former girlfriend Flay Allster along with the memories of all his encounters with Shinn Asuka and Rey Za Burrel from the battles the Archangel had with the Minerva from the events of the Second War. It felt just like being sucked through a small vacuum tube until eventually, there was a flash of white light and soon everything was black.

* * *

Kira wasn't sure how much time had gone by since he had lost consciousness… and in fact, he was even very surprised when he felt himself coming back. He was sure he had died back when his Strike Freedom had been destroyed… so where was he now? Was he in the afterlife? It that was the case, then it'd be a consolation prize, at least, to get to see again all of his loved ones who had died in the wars. And maybe see Flay and ask for her forgiveness for not being able to save her.

Slowly, Kira opened his eyes, the pain finally leaving his body…

At first, he thought he was seeing a dying dream of his or something, because the scenario in front of him was incredibly familiar… in fact, it seemed he was back in Heliopolis, back when the war still was to begin. But of course, it couldn't be true. There was no way he had gone back in time, right?

But if that wasn't the case… then what had happened?

Kira shook his head, chasing away the memories of the battle, or rather the slaughter, he had just fought in and tried to think of what might have happened. It was a little hard to think logically on something like that, and he was not even sure where to begin… but what he was seeing looked real and tangible enough, which at least was a start. He tried walking away from the spot he had awoken on, and found that he was still in perfect control of his body, though he was a little disoriented. He looked around once again, and found that there was a lot of activity around him… last time he had seen Heliopolis, it had been destroyed by the Le Crueset Team's D-equipment… so why did it seem to be alive and active again?

It all made no sense… unless the idea Kira just had was true!

Had he traveled… back in time?

"Okay…. This is getting weird…." He said to himself as he slowly got back onto his feet and it was then that he saw something that was very familiar to him as it flew down onto his shoulder… "Birdy… is that you?"

"Birdy!" said the mechanical bird with a nod, wondering if Kira was alright although the brown-haired Coordinator noticed something else different about himself as he felt much younger than he was before plus he saw that he was wearing a familiar civilian outfit rather than his current ZAFT pilot suit from the Third Bloody Valentine War. Without another thought, he quickly made his way to the nearest newspaper stand and took a newspaper from it. As he looked at the date, his eyes widened in shock by what he saw.

The date says March 15th, C.E. 70…. About a month after the Bloody Valentine Tragedy had taken place. "It can't be…." He gasped in shock at this revelation and he realized that the vision he had was not just a vision at all…. He really was sent back in time and that the female who looked like Flay was the one responsible for all of this. "If this is the past…. Then that means…. " he realized that everyone killed since the Le Creuset Team's attack on Heliopolis are all still alive at this exact point in time. However, he also saw that it was really late at night and he knew that his adoptive parents would be worried sick if he doesn't return home soon. "Damn…. Mom and dad will kill me if I'm not…."

He never finished what he was going to say as he heard a female scream not too far away from where he stood. "What the hell was that?" he wondered as he and Birdy made their way towards where they heard it.

What he saw made his heart stop cold for a moment: a group of three tough-looking street thugs were dragging away a young red-haired teenager whose clothing was ragged and ripped in several parts. The boys were obviously amused, and it took no huge stretch of the imagination what they were going to do to the girl. Kira felt a surge of rage coursing through him as he saw the gang pick on the poor girl… but his anger turned to horror when he saw who the girl was!

With those fiery red hair and brilliant blue eyes, there was no mistaking it – she was Flay Allster, the girl he had loved and that he had lost at the hands of Rau Le Creuset at the very end of the First Bloody Valentine War! He had been so overwhelmed with the prospect of having gone back in time that he had almost forgotten she would be alive as well… but he didn't dwell on those thoughts too long, and he stepped forward to stop those thugs from doing what they wanted with her.

"Birdy, please… stay back!" Kira told the mechanical bird, who quickly flew back and perched itself on a nearby railing. "This is going to get ugly, I'm afraid… hey, you! Yes, I'm taking to you! Leave that girl alone!"

The punks immediately stopped dragging Flay away, and turned to Kira, who took a deep breath and stepped forward, glaring at the thugs. "Huh? Who's this little brat here? Don't ya know that kids should be home with mommy now?" one of the criminals said, with the others laughing rudely after him.

Kira refused to be intimidated. "Leave that girl alone, and go away. Or else, you'll have to deal with me." He said, standing his ground as the thugs stepped forward as well.

Another of the would-be rapists chortled at that. "Hehehehee… have you heard him, guys? This runt thinks he can take us! Why don't we show him what's what, huh?"

"Works for me!" another bully said, cracking his knuckles. As they seemingly left the girl alone, she recovered her senses a little and looked up, trying to see who had come to rescue her… and she was very surprised when she saw who her savior was: someone she had never really given much of a second glance to…

"Ki… Kira?" Flay murmured, huddling in a corner to cover herself with what remained of her torn dress as Birdy landed onto her right shoulder and chirped in a reassuring tone to her. She could do nothing but watch powerlessly as the gang closed in on the young man, who looked about to be seriously beaten up by those brutes.

However, looks can be deceiving… Just as one rapist took out a pipe and ran at Kira, the brown-haired Coordinator caught it in his right hand. "You little cunt…" muttered the rapist before he was thrown onto the ground without another word.

"The hell?" exclaimed the second bully was shocked by this and gritted his teeth as he tried to punch Kira, only to see the younger man move out of the way and kick him in the jaw. "That smarts… You'll pay for this!"

"Yeah right…." scowled Kira, not happy with the three gang members of course none of them would stay down for the count as the two he defeated earlier got up onto their feet while darkly glaring at him. Though they don't know who they're up against either as the three decided to attack all at once to try and bring down their new opponent, not realizing that he wasn't just a Natural who is getting in their way. They were all shocked that he was not only holding his own against them but is also countering with strikes of his own, each one knocking out the gangsters before they could react.

"Damn…. This guy's not ordinary…" said one of them before going out cold from Kira's attack, realizing that he wasn't a Natural if he could defeat all three of them at once like that.

The younger man wiped some sweat from his forehead as soon as the fight was over although there was still one more matter to attend to as he made his way towards Flay, wanting to make sure she was okay.

"Flay… are you okay?" he asked, turning to the frightened girl who was huddling in a corner and watching him with a mixture of awe and relief. The redhead flinched a little, still shocked from the earlier attack, and looked fearfully at Kira. She now knew that he was a Coordinator, and she was afraid that he'd hurt her as well…

"Please… stay away from me…" Flay murmured as she tried to back away against the wall. Kira, understanding that he was frightening her, stopped in his tracks and stepped backwards a little.

"Ah… sorry, Flay… don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you… are you okay?" he asked, keeping away from her in order to reassure the frightened girl. After a few moments, Flay seemed to calm down and her breathing eased a little, as she slowly got up on shaky legs.

"I… I'm okay… more or less…" she said, trying to rein her emotions in. She was still very shaken, and Kira did not dare get closer to her. However, she soon steadied herself and walked closer to him, throwing herself in his arms in gratitude. "Thank you… I don't know what I would have done if you weren't…"

"It's okay, Flay… it's all over now, don't worry!" he said, trying to reassure her. For several moments, the two of them stood in silence, hugging each other before Kira cleared his throat. "We… should probably go to the police now…" he proposed uneasily, knowing what was the right to do in such circumstances. "Please, come with me, I'll get you there…"

"No… it's okay…" Flay said with a stutter. "Please… just stay with me for a little… take me to the shopping mall… It's getting late and Misha and Jessica are waiting for me there… they are probably worried sick about me right now…"

Kira slowly nodded. "Sure, no problem. Are… are you sure you're alright?" he asked, noticing how the red-haired girl was still shaking. However, she gulped and nodded in assent – she was grateful to Kira for having saved her, but she was still wary of the fact that he was a Coordinator, and she had been taught not to trust Coordinators at an early age, as her father George Allster was an high-ranking member of the Atlantic Federation government.

However, the fact remained that Kira had saved her from the rapists, and she could not just ignore that.

"I will be alright… just… stay with me for a little, okay?" she asked. "Just until we get to the shopping mall and meet my friends… Don't worry about me, I can handle this… I think…"

As soon as she said that, Kira placed a hand on her shoulder, helping her straighten herself. "Okay, Flay… just tell me where we have to go, and I'll take you there!" he said, privately wondering if this was going to be his chance to change the past and stop her death from happening. Unless he was mistaken, the attack of the Le Crueset Team on Heliopolis was only a few months away, and that meant he was going to be forced to climb onboard the Strike once January 25th of next year comes… Of course, he will also have no choice but to fight against Athrun again once that happens.

_This is getting really weird but still… maybe I can use this as a chance to make a difference, _he thought to himself before hearing Birdy's voice and turned to see him returning to his owner as the police soon arrived while wondering what had happened earlier. Though he mentally told himself that he was glad that he arrived when he did otherwise who knew what would have happened to Flay.

* * *

While this was happening, a mysterious person wearing just a pilot suit was watching the police arresting the unconscious rapists then turned her attention towards Kira and Flay as they left the area. She knew that there was something which caused the dark future that the brown-haired male came from and wondered if it had something to do with the unbalance that was affecting the world.

"**There's no way, it could have been the same thing that affected my home… could it?"** wondered the female, whose voice sounded similar to Flay's though a more mature version of her with her face hidden from sight as she was in deep thought about it with her glance not leaving Kira never the less. **"No, whatever it was…. It didn't have the same readings as the unbalance…. No matter, I hope that he would use his time in the past wisely…"**

With that, the young woman known only as **Dimensia** turned to leave as she needed to do some investigating of her own while at the same time remained in the shadows so she wouldn't be seen by anyone.

* * *

Meanwhile, Jessica and Misha were outside of the mall waiting for their friend as she hadn't shown up for sometime and they were starting to get worried. "I wonder where she could be Jessie…" wondered Misha. "It's not like her to be late…"

"That's what I'm thinking" added Jessie with a worried expression on her face as they looked at the time and that the mall is ready to close due to it almost being midnight. "Do you think something bad happened?"

"Don't say that! I'm sure she would have a perfectly good explanation as to why she hadn't come like she said she would."

"I hope you are right…." said Jessie, hoping that Flay is okay while also knowing that they needed to get back home before their respective parents become worried sick about them. "Where is she?"

It was then that Misha took notice to something. "Wait, I think I see something!" Upon a closer glance, she her eyes widened in disbelief when she recognized who one of them was. "It's Flay and she's with someone!"

"Huh? Are you sure?" asked Jessie in shocked as she soon saw that Flay's dress had been badly damaged and she was with a brown-haired male a year older than she was. "Oh my God! I don't believe it, it really is her!" They soon went towards the two as they were glad that she finally made it but knew that something had happened to her if she arrived the way she was. "Are you okay? What happened to you?"

"I'll be okay…" answered Flay in soft voice, though she wasn't sure whether or not to tell them the truth about having almost been raped back in that alley however she wouldn't get it off of her chest if she didn't tell them. "I… just need some time to… get my bearings back!"

"Are… are you sure, Flay? You really don't look okay to me…" Misha answered, before taking a curious look at Kira. "Uh… and who's this guy? A… friend of yours?"

"Well…" Flay answered, as Kira uneasily turned to her friends. "You… could say that! And… well, if it hadn't been for him, I would not have arrived here today!"

"Oh, dear… I… don't know what happened and I'm not going to press you any further, but it must have been pretty scary if you say that…" Jessica stated as she wrapped Flay in a hug. The redhead sighed and hugged Jessica back, and Jessica looked up at Kira in gratitude. "And as for you, well… thank you for what you did for Flay! She's my best friend, and I don't know what I would have done if something happened to her!"

"I have to thank you as well…" Misha answered, bowing slightly to Kira, and causing the young man to be a little embarassed at their gratitude. "We… would like to make it up to you somehow. Would you like to come with us and let us offer you something?"

Kira hesitated a little before answering. "Er… actually, girls, there's no need for you to feel in debt to me. I… I just did what I had to do when I helped your friend, so…" he murmured, hoping Misha and Jessica would not notice him blushing…

"Actually, Kira…" Flay said, raising her head from Jessica's hug. She hesitated for a moment, still somewhat overwhelmed by the strong emotions she had experienced that day, but then she steeled herself a little and went on. "I… I would like you to come with us as well… I'd like to do more than just say 'thank you' to you. So… please, Kira, allow me to show you more gratitude than just that."

Kira was a little embarassed about the whole stuation, and in fact, he would have liked the idea of spending more time with Flay… maybe, this could have helped both him and her, and give them another chance. So, after thinking about it a little, he raised his head and smiled slightly, nodding in acceptance. "Well, Flay… if you really want it, then… yes, I will come with you!"

Flay's face perked up. "Really, thank you, Kira! I'm glad you accepted!" she said. "So… er… girls… where do you think we could go? There are quite a few places around here where we could take Kira to offer him something…"

"Well, there's this place just inside the shopping center…" Misha ventured. "I heard they make the best ice cream of this colony, so… that's of course if Kira here is okay with it."

Kira thought about that for a little while. "Well… I'd definitely like that!" he answered, still feeling somewhat awkward at staying with three girls. He quickly tried to cover up for his embarrassment and joined the three as they walked back in the shopping mall. The more he spent with the girls, the more his previous hatred started to fade due to the fact that he was somehow given a chance to set right what had previously went wrong.

Then again, he also remembered something important from when he spoke to Flay in Orb in the previous timeline before the moment that caused him to break up with her when he was busy getting the Natural OS ready for Morgenroete and that break-up was something he really regretted as he had hurt her by doing so not to mention that had he not been so distracted from the fight with Rau at Jachin Due, he could have saved her shuttle…. In fact, he also mentally cursed the day the Calamity took her to the Dominion during the fight at Mendel but he knew that event hasn't happened yet and it can give him some time to plan out what he should do. That was when he had an idea, he knew that her father would most likely be busy with important business elsewhere and it didn't seem right for Flay to be living alone for all those years.

He soon turned his attention towards Jessica, Misha and Flay commenting on how cute Birdy is as they saw it was on Flay's left shoulder and it made him smile to know that there was a side to the red-haired girl that he never knew existed despite the fact that she still doesn't like Coordinators around this time, fortunately saving her from being raped is a start to help her see that not all Coordinators were evil. Without another thought, he paid for the ice cream for him and the girls.

"Thanks" smiled Flay, gratefully accepting the ice cream and as he saw him smiling at her, she could tell that it was genuine even for a Coordinator plus she had to admit that he was actually kinda cute. She was also glad that he showed up otherwise who knew what those bastards could have done to her and on the night of her birthday as well.

"Anytime…"

* * *

The rest of the afternoon had been rather uneventful, luckily. Kira spent the whole time with Flay and her friends, trying to take his mind away from his worries, and enjoying the time he was given to be with her. Soon, however, evening had come, and the team had to split as everyone was going back to their homes.

"Okay, girls… it has been fun staying with you today… and I thank you for celebrating my birthday with me." Flay said gently as she said goodbye to Misha and Jessica for the day, Kira and Birdy staying by her side. "Thank you very much… and see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Sure, Flay, no problem!" Misha answered. "And remember to call on us whenever you have a problem, okay?"

"And about that cute guy by your side… let us know how it goes, okay?" Jessica teased, causing Kira to widen his eyes and blush slightly.

Flay frowned a little. "Ugh… now, don't get any strange ideas, Jessie! It's no like that… though I have to admit that he's a great person and I do appreciate what he did for me!" she answered, her cheeks turning a bright shade of red! "Anyway… um… thank you, girls, and see you tomorrow!"

"Sure thing!" Misha and Jessica said together, waving goodbye to Kira and Flay as they walked away, towards their homes. Kira, Flay and Birdy stood there, watching them get away… and then, with a relieved sigh, Kira turned to Flay, asking her the question he had been meaning to ask for a while.

"Well, Flay… would you like me to accompany you home?" Kira asked, hoping Flay would accept… which sheluckily did, after seemingly think it over from a short while.

"I… I would very much like that, Kira…" she answered, still feeling rather insecure after that nasty encounter earlier that day. "In fact, I'm still a little fearful, and there's nobody who could come and fetch me…"

Kira feigned surprise. "Really, Flay? What do you mean? Don't you live with your father?" he asked. "I thought he would be willing to come and take you home."

"Yes, normally he would…" Flay answered with a sigh. "But now he's away for work, and I'm living alone in my home for now. After all as much as I would like to, I can't go with father… I'd only be a bother to him."

Kira thought about it for a moment, and took a breath as he asked her the fateful question.

"Well, Flay, since you're alone at home, right now…" he said. "There's something I'd like to ask you, if you're okay with that…"

Flay blinked in surprise. "Er… sure, ask away…" she answered, wondering what was the matter with him…

"Well…" Kira said, getting a hold of his courage. "Would you like to… come to my house and stay there for the night? I'm sure my parents would be very happy to have you there…"

This almost caught her off-guard but she was able to hide it and began thinking for a moment, she knew that she couldn't go back to her place by herself as she could be attacked again by another sicko plus her father was too busy with his own work. Still, she did want to repay Kira for rescuing her and a sincere smile formed on her face as she said. "That would be nice." She soon found herself holding onto his hand. "Thank you for the offer."

The brown-haired Coordinator smiled back as Flay gently stroked the top of Birdy's head upon it landing on her shoulder, this would be the start of a new relationship he would have with the young girl and this time he will be sure to do thing right.

* * *

Watching the two teens from affair was a familiar woman, she was glad that they were going to end up together though she also knew that there were still more important things to take care of as well. **"Looks like she won't be alone anymore…"** began Dimensia, though deep down she was also thinking about the things that she herself had lost but could also sympathize with Flay. **"Enough about that, time to get back to my mission… I will succeed no matter what happens."**

Without another word, **Dimensia** returned to the shadows so she could focus on her investigation and if there was any connections to what she was searching for.

A/N: Well here it is, the start of my new GS retelling and no it has nothing to do with my other retelling Gundam Seed DX, they're completely separate stories altogether but I will tell you that things will truly heat up once C.E. 71 takes place in this saga though if possible, I may also do some things between March 15th and Janaury 25th C.E. 71 in the GS timeline.


	2. Phase 1: A New Beginning

Disclaimer: See chapter 1 of this fic, Fiona Grayden is the OC of my co-writer Lily Nadesico, Rengi Canaver and the Silver Tigers are owned by my other co-writer NEBSparky86 and Anthony Russo (aka the Arctic White Wolf) and his team belong to Wing Commander WhiteWolf.

Gundam Seed: Kira's Rebirth

Phase 1: A New Beginning

By EmperorDraco7 and co-written by Lily Nadesico and NEBSparky86.

_Heliopolis, January 25th, C.E. 71_

It had been 10 months since Kira had found himself back in the past and rescued Flay Allster from being raped on the night of her birthday. While he was working on a project that Professor Kato wanted him to do, he was more focus on the upcoming attack on the colony by the Le Creuset Team so he needed to be ready for when that happens though hopefully starting with this event onward, he would try to set right everything that previously went wrong.

"Kira!" came a voice that he was glad to hear and he turned to see his friends Tolle Koenig and Miriallia Haw arriving to greet him. "There you are, Professor Kato has been looking for you."

"He is huh?"

"Yes he is… He asked us to find you and bring you to him right away" answered Milly, smiling brightly at the brown-haired male at work. "So what are you doing right now?"

"A lot recently, right now I'm working on the stuff he dumped on me yesterday" explained Kira with a small sigh, having almost forgotten about what work he had to do the last time.

Tolle took a glance at the laptop that was on Kira's lap. "Some development in the news?"

"Yes, Taiwan apparently…" he told his friend as a new reporter was recently relaying the new from Kaoshung where a group of ZGMF-1017 GINNs were currently in combat at this very moment.

"I'm within seven kilometers of Kaoshung where the sounds of fierce combat continues to echo!" he said, bringing the latest news on what was happening.

"If this is footage from last week then they've already taken over Kaoshung…" this was something that Tolle wasn't too thrilled about ever since the war between ZAFT and the Earth Alliance began last year.

"Yeah…" Kira found himself turning his laptop off though it wasn't anything new to him since he had been through this before but the others haven't gone through it yet.

"Kaoshung isn't very far from us is it?" wondered Milly, a bit worried about what is to come. "Will the homeland be alright?"

"You don't have anything to worry about" reassured Tolle. "Sure we are close by but we're neutral, I can't see Orb turning into a war zone."

"Well I guess we're okay…" frowned Milly before turning her attention towards Kira to try and change the subject. "How's Flay doing right now?"

He was almost caught off-guard by that comment but soon said. "She's fine; she said she'll catch up with us as soon as she can." He can't really blame her for asking that as she and Tolle had previously heard from Jessie and Misha on March of last year about how she was ganged up on in an alley and nearly raped as well had it not been for Kira's intervention earlier especially since Milly knew Flay the longest besides the other two girls.

* * *

_Flashback_

* * *

"_Here we are Flay" said Kira, upon finally arriving at his house and fortunately it didn't take too long to get there either though he was unsure of how to explain to his parents why he came back so late but knew he had to tell them about why sooner or later. "This is my home… you're welcome to stay if you want."_

"_That's… very kind of you, Kira…" Flay said, still a little embarrassed and shy about it all. "I just hope I won't be a bother to your parents… and by the way, what are you going to tell them about me being here?"_

_Kira sighed, knowing that this would be the hardest part. "I'm… not sure yet, truth be told. I'll think of something…" he stated, before taking a deep breath and opening the door to his home. "Mom, Dad… I'm here!"_

"_Kira!" Caridad Yamato exclaimed, her eyes widening at her son entering home with a somewhat guilty expression on his face. "Where have you been all this time? I was beginning to get worried about you… why haven't you called to let us know you were late?"_

"_You're right, Mom… I'm sorry…" Kira apologized, knowing that he was not used to get home this late and he always used to warn his parents whenever he happened to get home late. "It's… bit of a long story… I'm not sure I have the time to tell you about it now. It just happened that, as I was walking back home, I came across this girl who was in trouble… her name is Flay, and she was being harassed by a bunch of punks who had her in a bad position. I intervened and saved her… and she asked me if I could stay with her for the day, since she was rather afraid by then… I couldn't just say no to her…"_

"_I know what you mean, Kira… but next time you do something like that, please let us know in time, okay?" Caridad answered, before turning to Flay. "Anyway…I'm really sorry about what happened to you earlier, you're not hurt are you?"_

"_I'm fine, don't worry about it…" answered Flay, which made Caridad a bit concerned about it and she wondered where her parents were while this was happening._

"_Are you sure? Do your parents know where you are?"_

_Flay began to frown when that question was asked then said. "No… That's because…" she almost didn't finish what she was going to say but with a small sigh, she spoke. "The reason is because my father is away on important business."_

"_Oh my…" Caridad felt bad when she heard the red-haired girl's answer and knew that her father would be worried sick when he finds out but then again if he was away then it wouldn't be right to have her return home by herself after hearing what had just happened... "You're welcome to stay with us for as long as you want Flay, we don't mind."_

_The younger female was almost caught off-guard by this as she felt a hand being placed on her shoulder and saw Kira's mother was smiling at her, she didn't know what to say after that though for the first time since her own mother died when she was younger, she felt a warm feeling inside of her._

"_Thanks… thank you very much, Mrs. Yamato!" Flay said, her voice cracking a little from emotion. She had never met anyone who was as kind to her as the Yamatos were, and she didn't know exactly how to react._

"_You are welcome, dear!" Caridad answered. "By the way, Kira… would you be so kind as to show Flay around a little? If she's staying here for a while, then she should be a little more familiar with our house, right?"_

"_Of course, Mom! It'll be my pleasure to help her around!" Kira answered with a small smile, before turning to Flay and extending an hand out to her. "Okay, Flay… if you'd like to come with me, I can show you around the house a little."_

"_That will be great, Kira…" Flay answered with a nod, as the two teens began walking together towards the other rooms…_

* * *

_End Flashback_

* * *

"Don't worry, guys, Flay will be here before you even know it!" Kira answered, gently rubbing the back of his head. "Anyway, about that project we have with Professor Kato… Tolle, do you happen to have the annotations for the latest lesson?"

"Actually, Kira… I thought you might help me with something about those!" Tolle answered, showing him a bunch of papers with scribbled notes all over them. "You see, there are some parts I just can't understand, and I was wondering if you could explain a few things to me…"

Kira nodded, knowing that his friend Tolle was never the sharpest when it came to understanding maths, physics or anything regarding arithmetic.

* * *

In space, a Marseille III-class transfer ship was slowly entering Heliopolis' docking bay and its captain raised his hat as he was glad to have arrived at the colony without any problems. "There you have it, the ship has completed its final mission" he said to a blonde-haired male standing next to him. "We must thank you for being our escort Lieutenant La Flaga."

Lieutenant Mu La Flaga simply nodded and said. "I'm glad we arrived without any incidents sir" his face turned serious after finishing. "Any ZAFT vessels in the area?"

"We've spotted two but there's no need to worry" the Captain explained to Mu. "They know they can't perform any hostile actions once we're docked."

"Because this colony is Neutral? What a joke that is."

"It's thanks to them that our plans have progressed this far, we're fortunate that Earth has recognized all resignation" laughed the captain then turned his attention to five crew members saluting to him before they floated away though Mu is a bit concerned.

"Think they can handle themselves on the ground?" he asked.

"I know they're young but they are top guns selected to be G-Pilots, I'm sure they'll do just fine…. After all, they were personally trained by Instructor Rena Imelia herself" answered the captain. "However someone like you might stick out like a sore thumb."

* * *

Today was the day, as EA Instructor Rena Imelia herself waited patiently for the five cadets to appear before her in the hanger as she was in her military uniform for it was soon going to be time for them to officially become the pilots of the five newly developed G-Weapons which are recently at Morgenroete.

"Instructor Imelia!" Rena's attention turned towards her students upon having arrived, saluting to the one who trained them well. "Instructor Imelia, we are ready! We are very impatient to see these G-Weapons we are going to pilot! We have heard they are the best the Atlantic Federation could come up with!"

"Indeed they are…" Rena answered with a nod. "Their performance is much superior to that of ZAFT's ZGMF-1017 GINNs, and their new defense system, the Phase Shift Armor, makes them extremely resistant to any physical attack. These new Gundams are a match for anything ZAFT will throw at us."

"Gundams?" another cadet asked in curiosity. "That's how they have called them?"

"Exactly… the GAT-X105 Strike, GAT-X303 Aegis, GAT-X102 Duel, GAT-X207 Blitz and GAT-X103 Buster." Rena went on. "Each one of them has special abilities you will have the chance to discover and work to your advantage in the coming battles with ZAFT. The training you have received will be more than enough for you to handle the new OS they work on. In other words, cadets, consider it an honor to pilot these perfected machines."

"Oh, well… that means at least we'll have a nice little toy to show our girlfriends when we're back on Earth!" another of the cadets cracked a joke to lighten up the mood, which caused all the other to chuckle at it… however, Rena clapped her hands in order to make them focus on the current situation.

"Cadets, please. This is no a joking matter." She said, regarding all of them with a serious frown. "These Gundams are currently our best chance against ZAFT, and if they are destroyed or caught by the enemy, we will be in great danger. So, what I am asking you is to take extreme care of all of them, and make sure they all get to Earth in good conditions. We'll rendezvous with the Archangel soon enough, so make sure you are well prepared. That will be all."

All the cadets nodded seriously and saluted their instructor, who saluted back… and just then, the loud sound of a proximity alarm was heard, startling everyone on board!

"What? What the hell is this?" Rena asked incredulously. "What's going on here?"

"ZAFT units are approaching, Instructor Imelia!" a bridge operator stated in shock.

"What?!" exclaimed the black-haired woman in disbelief, gritting her teeth when she heard this as she knew the colony itself was property of the Orb Union so there shouldn't be any hostile actions from ZAFT at all so there had to be more to it. "Prepare the Moebius units at once; we need to stop them before they reach the colony!"

"Yes ma'am!"

"I'm heading out there as well…" she told the operator, heading to her custom mobile armor accompanied by her five students much to her dismay. Of course, she had a bad feeling that if ZAFT is launching an attack with just two ships then they must have somehow found out about the Gundams at Heliopolis and she wanted to make sure they don't fall into enemy hands.

The crew in the bridge was not happy about this sudden attack as the pilots and their Instructor decided to go out into battle to try and make sure that the Gundams don't fall into enemy hands.

* * *

"Damn… why now of all times?" wondered Mu, already in his purple and black pilot suit though shocked that the alarm was blazing all over the ship. "What are we dealing with Captain?"

"The two vessels we've detected earlier, Nazca-class and Laurasia-class" explained the captain, showing him the data the ship has on the approaching ZAFT forces. "What bothers me is why they are choosing to attack a neutral nation like Heliopolis."

Mu frowned, not liking the look of this then said. "Have Luke and Gail board their Moebius units, don't deploy them yet!" He soon puts on his helmet then floated out of the bridge however he knows that the TS-MA2 Moebius is a powerful mobile armor, it is unfortunately no match for ZAFT's mobile suits at all so he will need to go out there in his TS-MA2mod.00 Moebius Zero in order to even the odds.

* * *

_Nazca-class Destroyer, the Vesalius_

* * *

Commander Rau Le Creuset had a serious expression on his face as he and the ship's Captain Fredrik Ades were briefing six teenagers donning the red uniform of the ZAFT elite pilots, five young men and a single female, along with a three young men in green uniforms about an operation that is about to take place. "The Earth Alliance has secretly developed its own series of mobile suits" explained Rau, knowing that it would be "Our mission to capture them is a vital importance, the success of this mission will determine the outcome of the entire war and I expect nothing less than your best."

The teenagers simply saluted their commander, knowing that they must stop the Earth Alliance before they can deploy these new machines against them. "Yes sir! For the glory of ZAFT!" they said.

Rau turns his attention towards Ades and then back towards his subordinates with a serious tone, he said. "I'm going to be joining you in my CGUE, as of right now… we must take no chance, failure is not an option."

They all nodded and left the bridge, eventually Ades glanced at the masked commander before speaking. "Sir, you're going out there too?" he asked, though it wasn't to question his decision.

"I have rather important matters to attend to" he told the ship's captain. "After all, we must secure the five new mobile suits before the Alliance can use them against us..." Without saying another word, he floated off to make sure that the operation is successful at any cost.

* * *

_Inside Orb Union colony Heliopolis, Morgenroete Heliopolis Facility_

* * *

A young man of 17 years of age and wearing a Morgenroete worker's uniform, showing that he was an employee of Morgenroete, was sneaking around the Morgenroete facility looking to see if he could find any evidence of Orb constructing mobile suits trying to start its own mobile suit program. If it was true then he would just take some photos and then report back to his mother Eileen Canaver so he could return to his teammates.

An hour later, after searching the facility, Rengi managed to catch a glimpse of a mobile suit in a hangar. This mobile suit stood up straight with a reflective silver paint job, two guns mounted on a backpack, a beam saber mounted on a rack on the left hip armor and it had a human-like head.

"Now that's an incredible mobile suit," Rengi said aloud as a young woman walked past him.

"I see you like the prototype," the young woman said to Rengi. "We built this mobile suit using data on the GAT-X103 Buster we stole from the Alliance.

"Oh, where are my manners?" the young woman asked Rengi as she chuckled. "My name is Roux Louka. I'm a test pilot here at Morgenroete; what's your name?"

Rengi turned and saw the young woman and was amazed at her but tried to hide it from her. She was about 5' 5" with long lavender hair and a slender figure as wore a Morgenroete employee uniform. "Oh... my name is Rengi Canaver," he replied while trying to remain calm.

"Yes, I know you think I'm attractive," Roux informed Rengi with a mischievous glance and a wicked smile on her face.

'_I didn't think that,_' Rengi thought to himself.

"Yes you did," Roux said to Rengi.

'_Oh my god, she's in my head_,' Rengi thought to himself. '_Okay, take this to your advantage…_ _Get me a soda woman_.' he directed the thought at Roux.

"Get it yourself," Roux said she cracked a mischievous smile

"Ahhh!" exclaimed Rengi as he couldn't believe that Roux was literally in his head.

Roux giggled at Rengi's reaction and showed him around the area they were at. During the tour, Rengi and Roux passed a man wearing a Morgenroete uniform. Unfortunately the man went on ranting about how Orb was going to be destroyed and how every citizen was going exterminated for the preservation of a 'Blue and Pure world' for taking up arms against the Atlantic Federation and betraying the human race. As he ranted, he dropped a card key that would give him access to the hangar with the silver mobile suit and another mobile suit that the Blue Cosmos sympathizer did not seem to notice.

"Hmm, how interesting..." Rengi stated, picking up the keys without anyone noticing. "So... weirdos who preach of the preservation of a 'pure and blue world', and a key to a Mobile Suit hangar? Two things that don't mesh well together, if you ask me. Sorry, Blue Cosmos dickheads, but I'll be keeping this little toy of yours for safe keeping."

With that, he pocketed the card and walked away, trying to look inconspicuous. However, there was a foreboding feeling in his head that things were going to get worse soon. After all, the fact that a Blue Cosmos sympathizer might have had access to a Mobile Suit meant that the evil terrorist organization was probably on the move...

And there was the distinct possibility that ZAFT's intelligence division might have gotten hold of this information, which would mean... that an attack against Heliopolis itself was not completely out of the question! Rengi frowned, understand how bad the situation was, and deciding he's better at least take some precautions against it.

"Well... whatever that Blue Cosmos lackey was doing here, the fact that they might have had new Mobile Suits built does not bode well for anyone, and I can't just overlook this. Maybe I should stay close to this place for a while, and see what happens... I have a bad feeling about this..."

* * *

Back on board the Vesalius, the Le Creuset Team troops arming themselves for the upcoming mission while the pilots were floating into their GINNs, getting ready to sortie while this was happening, a conversation took place between some of the troops.

"I can't help wondering..." began the orange-haired pilot Rusty Mackenzie, a bit curious about the operation taking place. "Are we doing the right thing?"

"What do you mean Rusty?" asked the silver-haired Yzak Joule in his usual attitude, causing Rusty to turn to face his comrade next to him.

"Should really carry out a mission like this against a neutral colony, especially one belonging to the Orb Union no less?"

Yzak scowled at this and said. "If this colony was so neutral then why is it secretly manufacturing mobile suits for the Earth Alliance?"

"I know you're right, that's unacceptable" said Rusty, laughing a bit and knowing that Yzak did have a good point. "In any case, we can't fail Commander Le Creuset."

"Heads up guys!" came the voice of GINN pilot Miguel Aiman. "We're getting to launch so don't keep us waiting out here."

"Understood... let's go."

* * *

In the meanwhile at Heliopolis, Kira and his friends were gathered around a desk, with Kira explaining to Tolle the parts he hadn't fully understood. Tolle was quite amazed by Kira's skill at clearing technical things up... however, as Kira was getting to the end, a few of his friends were getting distracted by the sight of a stranger dressed in a green shirt, long brown pants and boots, and wearing a beret over his blond hair that was leaning against a wall, apparently waiting for someone. Kira noticed as well, and he narrowed his eyes at the figure, recognizing who he - or rather, she - was by his memories of the previous time.

_Cagalli..._ Kira thought to himself. _So, this is one thing that hasn't changed..._

"Who is that?" wondered Tolle, curious about the stranger next to the wall near the students.

"Oh, that guy?" Kuzzey said, noticing how even Kira was looking at the figure. "Heard he's a guest of Prof. Kato, but I don't know exactly who he is."

Kira went towards the two and was about to ask where the Professor is when two hands covered his eyes, catching him off-guard. "Mir, what's going on here…" he asked before turning around to see that it wasn't Milly but rather Flay Allster herself and with her were Jessica and Misha. "Flay!"

The red-haired girl happily gave her boyfriend a hug, causing Milly to giggle at the sight of this moment. "I'm sorry I took so long, I was trying to figure out what to wear" she told him.

"Its okay, don't worry about it" he reassured her with a soft smile, returning her embrace and stroked some of her red-hair then again he was glad that she was here.

"So what brings the two of you here?" wondered Mir, a bit curious on why Jessie and Misha were present as well.

"Flay told us that she was going to meet with you guys here at the technical college and we were originally going to do some shopping together" explained Misha with a shrug though a bit jealous that Flay is with the one who saved her. "Though when she declined the offer and wished to see you… especially her knight in shining armor, we decided to give her some company along the way."

"So anything new happen lately?" asked Jessie out of curiosity.

"Apparently Professor Kato has a guest" explained Sai while glancing at the stranger nearby. "He was told to wait here at the moment."

"I see… Where exactly is Professor Kato anyway?"

Tolle stood next to Milly and said. "No clue, that's what we're wondering ourselves."

* * *

As Rengi and Roux were looking around the Morgenroete facility, Roux felt a strange tingling sensation and looked towards the ceiling. "Something's not right," she said to Rengi. "Mobile suits are approaching this colony, yet I can sense the presence of two people."

"What's wrong Roux?" Rengi asked in concern.

Roux didn't answer his question right away as she closed her eyes and focused on the two people she sensed.

* * *

On the Marseille-III class ship, Mu was already in his pilot suit and boarding his Moebius Zero when he felt a strange tingling sensation himself. _What the hell_? he thought as he sensed a presence in Heliopolis. '_What is this feeling_? _It_'_s like there_'_s someone else out there like me_.

"Lieutenant La Flaga," Rena called to Mu as she noticed he was in daze. "Lieutenant La Flaga, are you alright? You look a little distracted."

Mu at first didn't answer Rena as he then felt another tingling sensation, but this sensation was a familiar sensation he knew all too well. It was the sensation he got whenever he went up against the mysterious masked commander from ZAFT. "Hurry up and get your student in their Moebius units," he said sternly and cold. "Luke and Gail are already preparing to launch."

"What's gotten into you Lieutenant La Flaga?" Rena asked Mu.

"He's here," answered Mu, much to Rena's confusion and dumbfounded look on her face before continuing "It's that damn bastard Rau Le Creuset… He's leading the ZAFT forces to attack Heliopolis.

* * *

As Rau was heading to his CGUE, he felt a strange sensation as Roux and Mu did but this sensation made him curious at first then turned to an evil grin on his face. _So Mu La Flaga is here at Heliopolis__,_ he thought as boarded his CGUE to lead his troops into battle.

"Miguel, I have a special task set up for you," Rau said to Miguel as he looked to the custom orange painted GINN to his left. "It seems that we may have a rather annoying fly buzzing about trying to hinder our plans.

"Sir?" asked Miguel in confusion.

"How would like to have a chance to take on the famous Hawk of Endymion once again?" Rau asked the young and eager GINN pilot.

"Would I ever?" Miguel answered enthusiastically in the form of a question. "That Natural won't know what hit him... heh, again like when we were moving Nova back to the PLANTS."

Rau smiled and then moved up to the catapult to launch first as he was leading the operation himself. "This is Rau Le Creuset, CGUE taking off," he said before his CGUE launched into vacuum of space and towards Heliopolis. Rau had shaken the thought of the second presence he sensed as it wasn't important to him at that moment.

* * *

In Morgenroete, Roux had lead Rengi towards the prototype that the young man had his eyes on. For Roux, Morgenroete had told her that the Astray and Z projects had to remain a secret from the Earth Forces. Both Z Gundam and the Gundam Astrays had to be kept out of the hands of Blue Cosmos; otherwise Orb would most likely suffer the same fate as the United States of South America when they tried to get help from the PLANTS.

"Where are we going?" Rengi asked Roux.

"We've got to at least save two the two prototypes from discovered or destroyed," answered Roux. "Come on, back to the hangar."

There was no way Rengi was going to argue with Roux. He followed her back to the hangar. As they ran back to the hangar with Silver Frame, the pair felt shaking as the colony now came under attack.

"They're here and so is that masked man," Roux said as she and Rengi made their way back to the hangar.

* * *

Back onboard the Marseille-III, Rena boarded her customized Moebius and prepped it launch as she was sure that Rau Le Creuset was going to make getting the G-Weapons on the Archangel difficult and hoped Murrue Ramius and her staff would be fast enough to load the five G-Weapons on the Archangel or already . But right then and there her mind was sudden thinking about her husband. "I miss you terribly... Tony," she whispered to herself as she referred to the nickname she gave to her husband Anthony Russo. "Once this war is over, I'll come home to you. Please wait for me."

"Instructor Imelia?" asked a bridge operator.

"Huh, oh sorry," Rena snapped out of her thoughts and she scratched the back of her head. "I was... just... in a daze thinking about someone."

_Attention all personnel! Incoming ZAFT mobile suits,_ reported the radar operator. _Nazca and Laurasia-class vessels closing in. Distance 500, Blue 16 mark 36 through 59 Bravo._

"Damn! They're going for the G-Weapons!" snarled Rena, refusing to wait much longer as for all they knew, it was only a matter of time before the Earth Alliance loses their only chance at turning the tide in the war. "Lieutenant la Flaga , should we launch now?"

"Yes, launch now," answered Mu. "The Heliopolis Defense Forces won't last a minute against ZAFT's mobile suits."

"Roger that I'm launching now," acknowledged Rena.

"We're launching too," said the lead pilot of the five trainees.

The Vesalius was already approaching Heliopolis with the Gamow following right behind it as all of their mobile suits launched from the two ships and headed into Heliopolis for their mission and capture the five G-Weapons, easily destroying the attacking Mistrals they tried to get in their way. ZAFT was desperate to keep their technical advantage over the Earth Alliance and would do almost anything to keep it too.

* * *

While this was happening, Rengi and Roux finally reached the hangar and stopped at the doors. "Rengi, slide the card through the reader and get ready to put in a password," she instructed.

Rengi gave a slight nod, produced the card key he picked up from the Blue Cosmos agent who was going to steal the mobile suit known as the MBF-P05 Astray Silver Frame, inserted the card key and swiped it through the card reader. After swiping the card through the reader, Rengi was asked to input a password.

"Okay Roux, it's asking me for a password," Rengi reported to Roux. "What's the password?"

"Tango Charlie 645189ner Gamma Foxtrot," answered Roux as Rengi punched in the password. After almost a minute or two, the password was accepted and the doors slid open to reveal not just the prototype Rengi saw, but a transformable mobile suit as well.

"Whoa, that's a cool looking mobile suit," said Rengi as his gaze was on the transformable.

"I'll tell you about it later," Roux said as she leapt towards the transformable mobile suit in near zero-gee. Rengi followed suit and got in the silver prototype mobile suit and started it up. Rengi then looked at the OS and shook his head in disbelief.

"You gotta be kidding me," Rengi said while looking at the OS. "This OS is crap."

'Well sorry if it doesn't meet your standards," sassed Roux. "But there's more to the OS then what you see. The mobile suit in has something... really special."

"Eh? Special?" Rengi asked dumbfounded then looked around the cockpit. "Roux says you have something special, buddy. I see you're called Gundam Astray Silver Frame; but let's give you a shorter name. How does Silver sound to you?"

Roux gave a soft smile and shook her head until she noticed the mobile suit come to life on its own. Inside the cockpit, Rengi noticed the OS was being updated automatically right in front of his eyes. After three minutes, the OS was updated and Rengi was able to pilot the mobile suit, but not as well as a GINN.

"Are you satisfied?" Roux asked Rengi.

"It's a start," answered Rengi. "I assume this mobile suit has an AI on board and will learn in combat."

"Correct," said Roux with a simple nod. "It will also update the OS after a certain amount of battles it has been through."

* * *

As Kira and his friends were still talking among themselves, they were interrupted by a sudden, loud explosion coming from outside the colony! Mir screamed in sudden terror as she held tightly to Tolle, while tremors shook the lab, sending various pieces of equipment falling to the ground!

"What… what was that?" Flay asked, holding tightly to Kira. The brown-haired Coordinator was looking quite surprised as well, though he actually knew very well what was going on. He knew that, just like in the timeline he had abandoned, the Le Crueset team had attacked Heliopolis in order to get their hands on the G-Weapons… and Athrun was certainly among them! This time, however, Kira did have the advantage of knowing what was about to happen…

"I… I'm not sure about that… but please, guys keep your cool!" Kira said, as more explosions shook the place.

"Did a meteor hit the colony?" asked Sai.

"I doubt it," said Miriallia, keeping a tight hold on her boyfriend. "We'd probably already know if one did."

"I agree with Mir," said Tolle. "But we should get to the shelters just in case."

"You're right, Tolle, I was about to suggest the same thing!" Kira interjected, holding Flay's hand as he felt her shake in fear. "Guys, let's stay together, or else we might end up… hey! Where's that girl going?"

Kira saw that the person who was waiting for professor Kato, after stumbling a little from the shaking, had simply gotten up and had ran away, towards the corridors who were not going to stay safe for much longer. He knew this was going to happen… but in the heat of the moment, he had blurted out that he knew it was a girl, when in the previous occasion; he had mistaken Cagalli for a boy at first…

"I don't know, but…" Kuzzey murmured. "A… girl? How did you know that person is a girl, Kira?"

Kira, realizing his blunder, quickly thought of a cover-up. "Er… well, it's just that when I saw that guy now, he looked more like a girl, after all…" he answered. "But that's not important right now!"

"Kira's right, we have to get to the shelters!" Miriallia answered, but Kira motioned for them to go, while he would follow the mysterious person and make sure nothing happened to her.

"Guys, I'll go after her, you guys head to the shelters. We'll meet again there," said Kira as he took off after the person he knew to be Cagalli. "Don't worry about me, I know what I'm doing!"

"Kira…" Flay murmured, before casting a serious glance at him. "Okay, but stay safe! If it's too dangerous, please get back here!"

"I will! Good luck, everyone!" Kira said, before doing a salute and tearing off after Cagalli. As he had expected, it didn't take long for Cagalli to lose her balance, thanks to a random collapse… and Kira moved to help her up. "Miss, it's too dangerous here! We need to get away, pronto!"

"Don't tell me what I should or shouldn't do!" the blonde girl answered, rudely jerking her arm away from Kira's helping hand. "You go back! I have something to check out by myself!"

"But where do you think you can be going with this chaos?" Kira answered, pointing at the ruined parts of the corridor. Lack of care had already begun to undermine the stability of the corridors, and a strafe of bombing had collapsed a part of the galleries, effectively trapping Kira and Cagalli inside! "We wouldn't be able to do anything if stay here like sitting ducks! We need to get out of here, and fast!"

"Hey!" she snapped, upon Kira grabbing her hand and having to lead her down the corridors. "Let go of me you jerk!"

"There should still be some shelters left in the factory district! Don't worry, we'll be fine." Though he knew that, he would need to be at Morgenroete as soon as possible since it was only a matter of time before the Le Creuset Team goes after the Strike and the Aegis there.

* * *

The five soldiers were at a nearby cliff, watching as the newly developed mobile suits were being transferred into the facility below. "That's it…" began Yzak, putting down his binoculars. "It is exactly like Commander Le Creuset said."

Dearka Elsman laughed a bit and said. "What with the right amount of prodding, they're sure to come out of their hole?"

"After all, the Naturals are stupid and pathetic… " As soon as the silver-haired soldier said that, three ZGMF-l017 GINNs landed nearby and opened fire at the Earth Alliance vehicles and attacking missile trucks guarding the mobile suits outside.

* * *

Meanwhile, a male about 23-years old with dark brown hair and emerald green eyes fixed his glasses while overlooking the five G-Weapons that were being rolled out. As he watched the G-Weapons being rolled out for transportation to the new warship known as the Archangel, his mind seemed to be elsewhere then his task on following up on rumors that the Sahaku Family had conspired with the Atlantic Federation. However, as the ground shook, he knew that the colony was being attacked and it meant that someone must have found out about the new mobile suits developed.

_I wonder how Rena's doing_? wondered Anthony Russo in deep thought, praying that the woman he cared about was alright. _Damn_, _I miss her a lot_._ Rena_,_ I hope you're safe wherever you are_.It was then he noticed a lovely young woman with fire-red hair, bright blue eyes and donning a uniform that signifies that she works for Morgenroete. "Excuse me miss."

"Huh?" the young woman said, turning to Anthony. She looked like she was 16-years old at most, and she seemed to be doing a great job keeping her cool even in such a dangerous situation, even though she had no idea what was going on. "Yes, sir, can I help you?"

"Do you have news about the G-Weapons?" Anthony asked. "The pilots were bound to arrive soon, but we still haven't heard news of them, and the colony is being attacked…"

The red-haired girl shook her head. "I'm sorry, sir… we haven't received news from Instructor Imelia or her cadets. It seems that they've been attacked by a ZAFT division on their way here…" she answered sadly. "We're trying to get in contact with them for a while now, but so far we've gotten nothing at all… and we don't have the time to try anymore, now that we're under attack!"

"Damn…" Anthony cursed to himself. "I understand… In that case, the only thing left to do is get the Hell outta here and hope for the best! Let's get to the closest exit!"

"Right!" the young woman answered with a nod, before following Anthony along a corridor, while the place was getting rocked by more and more explosions. "This way, we'll reach the shelters in no time!"

"Thanks for your help!" Anthony answered, before deciding it would be a good idea to at least let the girl know his name. "By the way. My name is Anthony Russo, pleased to meet you, miss."

"The pleasure is mine, though I hoped it would be under better circumstances…" the girl answered before introducing herself as well. "Fiona Grayden. I work for Morgenroete as a technician."

"Yeah, I saw that for your uniform." Anthony said. "Anyway, let's be careful from here on. I suspect the enemy will attempt to infiltrate this place and take the G-Weapons!"

"That wouldn't surprise me…" Fiona answered. "Damn, those mobile suits are our best weapon against ZAFT, and now we're seeing them turned against us! If we don't hurry and save at least one of them, our goose is cooked…"

"Don't worry about that, Miss Grayden, we have to think of getting out of here!" Anthony said, to which the red-haired girl nodded and murmured an affirmative. As soon as they got to a fork, they turned a left at Fiona's indication, and quickly ran outside, where lots of people were running away from the attacking Mobile Suits and trying to reach the shelters. However, there was such a commotion that people ended up standing in each other's way in their panic, which only made things more difficult…

* * *

As Sai, Tolle, Milly, Kuzzey, Jessie, Misha and Flay arrived outside of the technical college, they were horrified by the sight of the ZAFT mobile suits firing their machine guns and causing destruction in the entire city. To the red-haired girl however, it was like she experienced this whole mess before.

However, the GINNs were more preoccupied with taking out the trucks attacking them and they were easily dispatched like they were nothing. "Alright, let's destroy any parts we can't carry and the factories" Yzak told the other soldiers with him. "Intelligence indicates five mobile suits… so are the other two still inside?"

"Rusty, Shiho and I will continue, Yzak… you and the others take these three" said one of the other four soldiers.

"Roger…" he said to his comrade then turned his attention towards the others. "If you're piloting one of them, make sure you disarm the self-destruct first!"

"You don't have to tell us twice!" Upon landing onto the ground, they made quick work of the EA soldiers near the mobile suits and the remaining two ZAFT soldiers went straight into the factory district.

* * *

It felt like nostalgia to him but as Kira and Cagalli arrived at the district, they watched in shock at the sight of the two remaining mobile suits present as ZAFT and Earth Alliance soldiers were opening fire at each other. "Those are…" he didn't have the time to finish what he was going to say as Cagalli dropped to her knees.

"I knew it…. The Earth Alliance's new prototype mobile suits…" she barely managed to speak, not liking what she was seeing. "Father I know you've betrayed us all!" However, there was no time to get emotional as Kira helped her up then turned to the left.

"Crying won't get us anywhere… come on, this way!"

Murrue Ramius was shocked when she saw the two teenagers and stopped herself from shooting them. "Those are children…" she said before hearing someone calling her name. Without thinking, Murrue turned to face the enemy and tried her best to keep them away from the new units. "Get the Strike and the Aegis up and running now!"

"We'll try to do that, Lieutenant Ramius, but we're barely managing to lay suppression fire as it is…" the closest soldier of the Earth Alliance forces answered. He slipping out of his hiding to shoot a couple rounds from his gun, but he was cut down almost immediately by opposing gunfire. Repressing a curse, Murrue fired back, and managed to mortally wound the enemy soldier who had just shot, dropping him to the ground.

"We're not getting anywhere like this!" Rusty exclaimed, taking cover as an EA soldier shot a couple rounds at him and Shiho. "If only there weren't so many soldiers, maybe we'd have a chance…"

With that, Rusty grabbed a grenade from his belt and dislodged the pin with his free hand, then waited for two seconds… and threw the live grenade at the largest group of soldiers, before ducking back for cover! A second later, there was a deafening explosion as several EA soldiers were scattered around like rag dolls, throwing the defenders' ranks in confusion and panic!

"Well done, Rusty!" Shiho praised him, before resuming her attack and dropping an enemy soldier with a precise shot! However, Murrue had managed to get behind a safe shelter, and as soon as Rusty tried to attack again, she took aim and fired, hitting him straight in the chest! Rusty grunted in pain and fell, under the shocked eyes of both Shiho and Athrun. "Rusty!" she exclaimed, dragging her dying comrade behind cover and trying to tend to him. "Rusty, stay strong! We'll call for a medical team as soon as we can!"

Rusty, weakly trying to cover a bullet wound on his chest, coughed twice and struggled to keep his eyes open as he looked at Shiho and Athrun, who were hovering near him as other soldiers fired at the enemy and trying not to let them get closer. "Sh… Shiho… don't… worry about me… I'm… done for…" he weakly murmured. "P-please… get those... Gundams… complete the… m-mission… for me…"

Then, his hand fell, and Rusty breathed his last.

"Rusty!" Athrun exclaimed in anguish. Shiho shook her head, signaling that Rusty was beyond help right now, and the blue-haired ace cursed under his breath. "Dammit… they will pay for killing Rusty!"

With renewed anger, Athrun and Shiho fired back at the Earth Alliance forces defending the G-Weapons, killing several of them… and a bullet from Athrun's handgun grazed Murrue's shoulder, causing her to drop her own weapon and to stagger backwards in pain. Having run out of bullets, and seeing that the crossfire between his comrades and the EA forces had died down for the moment, Athrun extracted his combat knife.

"Shiho, you and the others keep the position! I can take the Aegis from here!" he told his female comrade, who nodded and proceeded to cover him as he dashed at the stunned Murrue, trying to stab her to death. The EA officer gritted her teeth, figuring her time had come…

"No! Stop it!" a young male voice intervened, as a brown-haired teenager stood between her and Athrun, stopping the ZAFT ace from going in for the kill! In the face of a civilian, Athrun hesitated just for a second… long enough to see just who he was facing, and he was completely shocked about it!

"What the… Ki.. Kira?" Athrun exclaimed breathlessly, not wanting to believe what he was seeing.

"Athrun…" breathed Kira, feigning shock at the sight of his best friend in front of him as Cagalli and Murrue were shocked at this turn of events, while wondering who the two young men knew each other.

* * *

The Duel was soon activated, grasping onto is beam rifle and shield as it slowly rose out of the containment it was in. "Wow, pretty impressive" said Yzak, grinning at how well the mobile suit he was in was designed. "Dearka, how's yours?"

"So far so good, update activated, the nerve link has been reconstructed calibration set… it will move" Dearka told the silver-haired elite while getting the Buster onto its feet with ease.

"And Nicol?"

"Not yet… almost there" said Nicol Amalfi, activating the Blitz and ultimately getting it online, with its shield fully-equipped.

"I wonder what's taking Athrun and the others so long" wondered Dearka, knowing that if they were taking a while to get the remaining two mobile suits then, there might be something wrong. "Hope they're making progress with their mission."

"I don't think they'll have too much trouble" explained Yzak, his face turning serious as soon as he finished. "We better stick with the plan and get these three to the Vesalius before they get damaged."

The three Gundams activated their thrusters and made their way out of the colony, while the GINNs stayed behind in order to make sure that they weren't followed. Not like the EA soldiers would have tried to stop them but it was better to be safe than sorry.

* * *

Outside Heliopolis

* * *

The Moebius Zero was taking on an attacking GINN and with the Gunbarrels aiding him, Mu was easily able to destroy the ZAFT mobile suit without too much of a problem. Unfortunately, he soon took notice to the Moebius that Gail was piloting being destroyed by the GINN it was fighting. "No Gail!" he yelled, about to go after the pilot responsible for killing the Moebius pilot when he felt a strange sensation all over his body. "What's this?"

The ZGMF-515 CGUE piloted by Rau Le Creuset was approaching the orange mobile armor, alongside Miguel's custom orange GINN. "So tell me, do you feel my presence? Do you sense it the way that I sense yours?" he asked himself, looking forward to this encounter with the Hawk of Endymion. "An unfortunate fate, wouldn't you say Mu La Flaga?"

It was then, he received transmission. _"Commander, this is Yzak Joule!"_ came Yzak's voice. _"We captured three of the five mobile suits that the Earth Alliance created and we're returning to the Vesalius!"_

"Very well, what of the status of Athrun, Rusty and Shiho?"

"_So far nothing sir…" _answered the silver-haired young man, letting out a small huff and continued. _"Never mind, we'll meet you back on the ship."_

Rau remained silent as communications was cut and for now, it was important to eliminate the last of the EA forces in order to truly ensure victory in this battle. As soon as the Moebius Zero was in sight, he turned his attention towards Miguel's mobile suit with a grin on his masked face.

"There's the Hawk of Endymion, Miguel," Rau said to the eager young GINN pilot with an evil grin. "He's all yours to deal with."

"Alright!" exclaimed the Magic Bullet, Miguel Aiman, as he rushed towards the orange Moebius Zero approaching Heliopolis.

* * *

As Heliopolis was under attack, Rengi and Roux boarded the prototypes they had commandeered. Rengi had taken a while to get ready because the suit required him to scan his biometrics and the AI on board took a couple minutes to adjust itself to compensate for the pilot being a Natural.

"Come on Rengi, aren't ready yet?" Roux asked over visual COM. "Morgenroete is about to be destroyed."

"You done yet Silver?" Rengi asked his mobile suit as if it were another person.

Silver Frame didn't give Rengi a verbal answer, but flashed its silver eyes as to say 'yes.'

"Great to hear buddy," Rengi said with a grin on his face. "Now then let's see if I can move."

Rengi then began to operate Silver Frame with a little difficulty at first, but Silver Frame began to compensate and readjusted the OS to help Rengi. Once Silver Frame's basic movements were mastered, Rengi then went to grab Silver Frame's shield and beam rifle before joining Roux.

"It took you long enough," Roux said to Rengi sarcastically.

"Sorry about that Roux," said Rengi. "I just wanted to make sure that my partner here was working properly. Silver, can you calibrate the beam rifle so you can use it?" Within 20 seconds, the beam rifle was calibrated for use by Silver Frame. "Alright, we're ready to go," he reported to Roux.

"About time," Roux said after she was almost ready to leave Rengi behind. She then took Z Gundam's beam rifle fired at the bulkheads that allowed mobile suits to get out of the facility. Silver Frame shot out first in front of Z Gundam as Morgenroete began to collapse and burying the Blue Cosmos agent alive and killing him in the process.

* * *

Anthony popped his head out of the secret hangar he housed his specially modified GINN in and saw other ZAFT GINNs entering Heliopolis. It was a surprise to Anthony that ZAFT was entering Heliopolis.

"You gotta be kidding me!" he exclaimed as he watched the GINNs attack the powerless Heliopolis militia. "Those guys are getting slaughtered out there. Guess it's time for the White Wolf to make his appearance."

* * *

Rena and her pupils were definitely struggling against the GINNs that were keeping them from entering Heliopolis.

"Geez, these guys are really tough," said the Duel's intended pilot. "Why is ZAFT attacking Heliopolis?

"I dunno genius," the Buster's intended pilot answered sarcastically. "Why not ask them?"

"Both of you, shut up," Rena snarled over the COM. "This is no time for snide remarks."

"Instructor Rena! I-I got a GINN on my tail!" exclaimed the intended pilot of the Blitz as he was in a panic.

"Calm down Ensign," Rena said in a cool and calm tone.

"I can't! He's closing in and AHHH!" screamed the Blitz's intended pilot as he was killed by the GINN chasing him.

"Marco!" shouted the Strike's intended pilot. "Damn you, you bastards!"

"Ensign, stay calm," said Rena as she tried to maintain discipline with her remaining pupils.

"But he got Marco," protested the Aegis's intended pilot.

"Keep it together," growled Rena.

Unfortunately for Rena, her pupils were moving wildly and the ZAFT GINNs picked them off one by one and played with Rena's pupils one at a time until Miguel showed up in his orange GINN. "Hey come on Matthew," Olar, one of the GINN pilots said to his pal. "We've got a job to do."

"Hang on Olar, one more than I'll join you," Matthew said as he lined up a shot and shot at Luke's Moebius unit, killing Luke in the process.

"Nice shot Matthew," said Olar as he took care of the Strike's intended pilot.

"Thanks," replied Matthew with a grin on his face. The Buster's intended pilot was killed by another GINN returning to the Vesalius as it went back for recharge.

Miguel then joined the fray with the burst of excitement and managed to get the Aegis's intended pilot after toying with him for about three minutes. "Damn it!" snarled Rena as she watched all of her pupils die when Miguel finished off the Duel's intended pilot quickly.

"Now then, YOU'RE NEXT!" exclaimed Miguel as he charged toward Rena hoping for another easy kill. "Take this you damn Natural!"

"You'll have to do better than that," Rena challenged Miguel over an open channel.

Rau eavesdropped in on the exchange of words between Miguel and Rena. _'So there is one Mobile Armor that is still putting up a fight'_ thought Rau before feeling that slight tingling sensation whenever he sensed Mu La Flaga. '_Damn it_, _looks I_'_ll have to deal with rather annoying fly_.'

* * *

Rengi and Roux cleared the facility's hidden hangar and then noticed GINNs attacking the powerless Heliopolis militia. But what caught Roux's attention was three mobile suits beginning to fly away until two of them noticed Silver Frame and Z Gundam coming up out of the secret hangar.

"Damn, they got Duel, Buster and Blitz," Roux said under her breath. "I hope at least the Strike stays out of ZAFT's hands."

"Hey, you okay there Roux?" asked Rengi before Silver Frame flashed its silver eyes "Huh, what's wrong Silver?"

The pilot of the Duel spotted Silver Frame and Z Gundam and became alarmed. "What? How come there are more machines?" he asked in a startled tone before becoming upset. "Damn it. You can never trust those idiots in Intelligence to get us accurate information."

"What do we do now Yzak?" asked Dearka Elsman

"Whadda think genius?" Yzak sharply counters. "Let's get them. We can't let the Earth Forces have any mobile suits. Cover me!"

"Roger that," acknowledged Dearka.

"Hey wait a minute," protested Nicol Amalfi, the pilot of the Blitz. "This isn't part of the plan."

"Just get your machine to the Vesalius, just like the plan," said Yzak. "We'll eliminate the two machines before they can link up the Earth Forces."

Nicol sighed and took his machine to the Vesalius.

Rengi then spotted the Duel and Buster approaching him and Roux.

"Scatter!" exclaimed Rengi as he and Roux separated when Duel and Buster turned on their mobile suits' Phase Shift armor and began firing at them.

"Hey dumbass, who the hell are you?" Rengi demanded to Yzak as he clashed with Yzak .

"Not that it matters Earth Alliance scum bag, " began Yzak, "but I'm Yzak Joule of the ZAFT Le Creuset."

"Damn it, I should've known the Le Creuset team would be here," Rengi said under his breath. "This is Rengi Canaver of the Silver Tigers team."

"Canaver?" asked Dearka as he paused in his fight against Roux. "As in the adopted son of Eileen Canaver?"

"Silver Tigers?" Yzak asked in disbelief as he snapped on the visual COM and saw Rengi's stripped face. "Well, guess I was mistaken. My apologies Ensign Canaver, but we're gonna deal with the Earth Forces mobile suit with you."

"She's not with the Earth Forces," Rengi said to Yzak. "She's a worker from Morgenroete and a new recruit for the Silver Tigers team too."

Yzak turned to Dearka, who gave him a smirk and a thumbs up. Yzak returned the thumbs up and smirk with a slight nod before turning to Rengi and Roux. "Get your suits outta here," The silver-haired redcoat ordered Rengi and Roux. "I'm positive we were being followed by Silver Fang and Tiger's Den so they could pick you up."

"Roger that," Rengi said as he and Roux began to follow Yzak and Dearka out of Heliopolis.

* * *

The G-forces slammed Kira downwards on the pilot's seat, with Murrue holding on for dear life just a little behind. Even though he already knew that the enemy pilot he was facing was Athrun, it still hurt to be facing his best friend as an enemy. However, he tried not to dwell on that, and decided to use what he knew to make a difference as long as he could. Trying not to waste time, he activated the Strike Gundam and tried to make it stand, while at the same time keeping an eye on Murrue and checking whether she was badly hurt.

"I'll be okay…" the brunette captain answered with a nod. "It's just a flesh wound, and I'll get it treated as soon as possible. But now we have to get away from this place, before it gets too hectic…"

"I know…" Kira answered. Then, with the experience he had gained from repeatedly adjusting with the OS, he began typing something on the console, in an attempt to rewrite the operating system in time. "But… this OS is too clunky. I'm surprised this Mobile Suit can even move, with such a cumbersome and inefficient program… hold on a second as I adjust it!"

Murrue watched in wonder as Kira skillfully rewrote the OS, making sure the Strike could move better. She knew no ordinary person could do that on the fly, and she realized that the boy she was with at the moment couldn't be but a Coordinator. Only someone with their own talents could be able to operate on that system with such speed and precision.

"Okay, it should be better now…" Kira stated, and in fact, he immediately found the Strike to be a lot easier to maneuver. "First off… we need to protect the civilians! They're still evacuating!"

In fact, Cagalli and several of the Heliopolis civilians were still trying to get away from the chaos, as the bunkers and the shelters were full and couldn't accommodate any more. Guided by a young woman with short blond hair wearing what looked like a piloting suit, the people were trying to evacuate through the still-available hangars, in order to reach whatever could help them escape the colony under attack.

"This way, everybody! Quick, this way!" the blonde was saying, showing people towards the corridor and helping them get away. "We need to act now while the Strike buys us time! You too, girl! Quick, follow the others!" she said, noticing that Cagalli was lagging behind, casting an angry glance at the Strike…

Meanwhile Athrun jumped into the Aegis' cockpit and mentally cursed at the fact that Kira was present. _Kira… no it can't be, there's no way it could have been him… _he thought to himself as he was getting his Gundam onto its feet though he noticed that the Strike was already activated and was equipped with its beam rifle and shield for battle.

Kira remained silent as he knew that Athrun would need to take his machine back to the Le Creuset Team and the two Gundams were soon facing each other not doing anything but stare at the other. While this was happening, a dark blue ZGMF-1017 GINN stood next to the Aegis as the pilot inside spoke. "Athrun, what's going on here?"

At first, Athrun didn't say anything as he was trying to grasp onto what had just happened earlier and when he heard his name being called again, he finally spoke with a look of concern on his face. "We're heading back Shiho…" he told the female redcoat, not liking the idea of this but for now they needed to get the Aegis back to the Vesalius for the time being. "The factory district is about to be destroyed so it's best if we regroup for now!"

"What about the Strike?" asked Shiho, she wasn't happy about it at all since the remaining Gundam is still in the hands of the enemy forces and Rau ordered them to capture all the machines at any cost. "We can't just let it go…. Not after Rusty died trying to get it!"

"I know that but for now, we need to get this unit back to Commander Le Creuset!" explained Athrun, understanding how Shiho is feeling about this situation and the brunette let out a small sigh as her GINN and the Aegis took their leave but not before taking one last look at the Strike.

Kira watched the Aegis and the blue GINN with it making their escape and nearly lost track of what was happening but quickly remembered that he needed to protect the civilians until they could reach safety so he raised the beam rifle and had the shield ready for any enemy fire that could come in their path. "Hang on, things are about to get rough!" he told the brown-haired lieutenant as he made his way out of the district while making sure she was alright though she also needed some medical attention soon.

Without a word, Murrue nodded and knew that now wasn't the time to argue with the strange kid as not only was keeping the Strike out of the hands of the enemy forces a priority but so was making sure the Heliopolis civilians don't perish in the attack even though they're now at a disadvantage due to losing four of the five Gundams to the ZAFT forces.

* * *

As Athrun and Shiho returned to the Vesalius, Rengi and Roux made their way to the Nazca-class vessel known as the Silver Fang as indicated by the silver reflective paint on the sides of the Nazca-class vessel and the Chinese symbol of the tiger too. "Well, here we are Roux," Rengi said as he took a look at the flagship of his unit. "Welcome to the Silver Fang, flagship of the Silver Tigers unit."

"So you're with ZAFT?" asked as she was a little annoyed with Rengi.

"Yes, yes I am with ZAFT," answered Rengi.

"Why didn't you tell me that?" asked a very annoyed Roux as she had vein popping on her face.

"You never asked me if I was with ZAFT," countered Rengi as he was calm.

"Oh yeah, my bad," said Roux as the doors opened ready to receive both Silver Frame and Z Gundam.

"It's cool Roux," Rengi said with a grin on his face. "Besides our commander's been looking for new recruits."

"Your commander?" asked Roux as she cocked an eyebrow in interest.

"Yeah, Commander Andrew Waltfeld," answered Rengi.

"The Desert Tiger is your commander?" asked Roux in surprise.

"Uh huh," answered Rengi as Gundam Astray Silver Frame backed into hangar of the Nazca-class vessel followed by Roux and Z Gundam.

* * *

The battle had a slight breathier as the GINNs outside of Heliopolis were recalled to the Vesalius, except for Mu and Rena as they were on the run from the mysterious masked commander, Rau Le Creuset. Rau began toying with both Mu and Rena but then went serious as Mu sent his Gunbarrels after Rau much to little or no success as Rau began systematically destroying them slowly leaving Mu's Moebius Zero vulnerable to getting sliced up by Rau's CGUE and then Rau would go after Rena in her Moebius mobile armor. Rau effectively stomped on one Gunbarrel causing it to explode "Mu, I'd actually be pleased if you vanished right about... now!" exclaimed the masked commander as he aimed his CGUE's rifle at one of the docked Gunbarrels on the Moebius Zero hoping the mobile armor would be destroyed as well.

Much to Rau's displeasure, Mu ejected his Gunbarrels and was still able fight only with his linear cannon. He then decided to head into Heliopolis to either capture or destroy the Strike. "Liuetenant, we gotta get this guy before he gets to the last G-Weapon," Rena said to Mu over visual COM.

"If it hasn't already been captured by ZAFT," Mu replied as he wasn't interested in the last G-Weapon. Instead, he was more focused on finally defeating Rau Le Creuset once and for all.

"Commander Le Creuset," Fredric Ades said on ZAFT combat COM channel.

"Yes, what is it?" asked Le Creuset as sped into Heliopolis with Rena and Mu hot on his tail.

"Sir, Ensign Rengi Canaver was at Heliopolis," began Ades. "We detected the Silver Fang and Tiger's Den in the vicinity."

'So the adopted Natural son of Eileen Canaver is here,' thought Rau as he tried to piece together what was going on. "Why was Ensign Canaver here?" he asked Ades in curiosity. "Did he happen to mention why he was at Heliopolis?"

"Yes sir," answered Ades. "He said something about hearing a rumor that Orb was developing their own mobile suit program and were taking advantage of the Earth Forces' presence in Heliopolis."

"Hmm... was he able to capture one of the mobile suits?"

Ades gave a confident smile as he answered, "Even better. He got two mobile suits they were developing and a worker from Morgenroete whom he recruited for the Silver Tigers. But he did tell us that before he and his team ever considered letting ZAFT scientists study the new mobile suits, that they have a condition," he finished.

"What condition would that be?" asked Rau with a curious tone as he entered the colony interior.

"That any data gathered from the study of both of those machines be sent to Orb as a gesture of good faith," answered Ades.

"I don't see why we can't facilitate Ensign Canaver's request," Rau said to Ades with a slight smile. "Very well then. Make sure and note for the ship's record that we will hand over any data regarding the two Orb mobile suits over to Orb as compensation for the loss of two of their mobile suits."

"Yes sir, duly noted," acknowledged Ades.

"Any update from our redcoats inside of Heliopolis?" Rau asked, always keeping an eye on the battlefield and his senses sharp in case Mu was trying to follow after him.

"Hold on, sir… I'm getting a communication from Pilot Zala right now!" Ades answered. There was some silence on Ades' part as he got the message, then the captain of the Vesalius spoke again. "It seems our team had got both good and bad news. On one side, they managed to get four out of five of the G-Weapons, and Joule, Elsmann, Amalfi, Hahnenfuss and Zala are now on their way to the rendezvous. Unfortunately, it seems that Pilot McKenzie was killed in action while trying to get onboard the fifth G-Weapon, which was later taken by an unknown."

Rau frowned slightly. "That's quite unfortunate. An unknown, you say? That was quite unpredicted… anyway, there is no time to think about it now. Rely to Aiman and his wingman the order to capture or destroy the fifth G-Weapon, and get ready to receive the other G-Weapons on board. We cannot afford to take too many risks at this point."

"Yes sir. Over and out." Ades answered, interrupting the communication. Rau smiled thinly as he easily dispatched a Moebius that tried to get too close to him, thinking things were about to get quite interesting indeed…

"I thought this was going to be a rather straightforward mission, but it seems that there are a few flies in my ointment. Never mind." He said to himself as he adjusted the silver mask that prevented the top half his face from being seen. "That just means I'll have to find a way to get around that… in fact, it might actually work to our advantage as well…"

* * *

Kira, in the meanwhile, was trying to both protect the civilians and get away from the danger zone. This time, luckily, it was much easier to get accustomed to the Strike's commands, although, after having piloted the Freedom and the Strike Freedom in the time he had come from, Kira thought the Strike was rather limited at that point. He was used to more agile and powerful models… still, it was just a matter of moments before he could get the hang of it back.

"Miss, are you okay?" Kira asked Murrue. "What about that bullet wound you got?"

The brunette was in the process of tying a binding just above her wound, thus stemming the blood loss. "I'll be okay, kid… just focus on getting away from here as fast as you can. By the way, you did a good job reprogramming that OS… you are a Coordinator, right? Not very many people could do that so easily."

"Yes, I am…" Kira admitted, and Murrue nodded slightly. "I… well… studied this sort of things at the academy I used to go to, and it seems I remember enough of it to do a decent job…"

He was forced to interrupt himself when a trio of GINN landed in front of him, their machine guns drawn and ready to shoot! Kira was ready for them… but he was taken aback when he saw that one of them was an orange color all over, instead of the silver-green hue sported by the other Mobile Suits. He had never fought such a GINN, and he had the feeling this was going to be harder than he anticipated…

"There it is, the fifth G-Weapon!" the pilot of the orange GINN, Miguel Aiman, a ZAFT ace also known as "the Magic Bullet of Dusk" for his Mobile Suit's speed and colour, said to his wingmen. "Matthew, Olor, be careful! This is not an opponent you should underestimate… try to keep him occupied on two sides, while I engage him!"

"Of course!" Matthew and Olor exclaimed in unison. Each of them went in a different direction and began firing at the Strike, whose Phase Shift Armor glowed slightly as it deflected all the bullets.

"Dammit!" cursed Kira, not liking the sound of this and things were about to become more problematic as he took notice to a group of teens trying to run from the fighting that endured plus he immediately recognized the group. "Oh man, just what I need too…. Okay, let's go with this."

He decided to go with going into his SEED Mode but he would notice that for some reason, he wasn't going into that state. "What the hell?" he asked himself in shock, wondering why he isn't in that state at all and quickly paid attention back to the battle as he managed to block a slash from Olor's GINN. "Why isn't this working…" he spoke to himself silently as he was bringing out the beam rifle to take aim at the GINN in front of him but failed to notice the second that behind him.

"Got you now!" yelled Miguel, ramming into him before he could react, causing him to lose the beam rifle and catching him off guard just as Matthew fired his machine gun again, scoring a direct hit on the Gundam once he saw an opening though the bullets had no effect on the PS Armor. "You don't seriously think you can go up against all three of us at once!"

Remaining silent, Kira glared at his two opponents while still unable to go into SEED Mode to take them on and it was then that he noticed his friends nearby but what shocked him was that Flay, Jessie and Misha were with them which didn't happen in the original timeline at all. However, as they were about to attack again… a single beam shot pierced through the cockpit of one of the enemy machines, destroying it instantly. "Olor!" screamed Matthew in anger and shock before he and Miguel hear a wolf's howl then turned to where it came from. "What the… It can't be!"

Landing not too far from the three mobile suits was a machine with a white cameo and a beam sniper rifle in its left hand, its wolf eyes shining red as it glanced at the units that were in front of it. "That mobile suit looks familiar…" muttered Miguel before trying to make contact with the pilot. "Alright, who are you and why are you interfering with our operation?!"

"Oh you already know who I am and I figured that your commander would be behind this attack!" came a strong male voice through communications, causing Miguel to grit his teeth at the sound of it.

"You traitor!" snapped Matthew, about ready to fire his machine gun at the new comer only to be shot in the back and killed in the destruction of his GINN.

"Matthew!" Miguel turned to see that the Strike had its beam rifle raised and was the one responsible for ending the ZAFT pilot's life, inside the cockpit… Kira wasn't happy about having to kill someone again and it marked the first time he ever killed another pilot since the fight against the Destroy at Berlin in the unaltered timeline… something he had regretted doing since he found out something shocking. In an attempt to avenge the deaths of his wingmen

"Damn you…" Miguel snarled, holding his sword at about head's height as he began retreating. This was going to be trouble… he knew that, even if he was considered an ace pilot, there was no way he could possibly defeat both those opponents, if his hunch about who the pilot of the white machine was right. "There's no helping it, I'll have to retreat for now. But make no mistake; I will avenge Matthew and Olor!"

The orange GINN that gave Miguel his namesake ran away, shooting a few rounds with his machine gun in order to cover his escape… and Kira breathed a sigh of relief as he thanked his good luck for that unknown guy having been present. It was really strange… how come had he been unable to enter SEED mode, if he was doing that naturally in the time he had come from? It was rather worrying… but right now, this problem would have to wait until later on. What was more urgent, in fact, was to get all the civilians to safety and discover who that guy who helped him was.

"That was close… thanks for your help!" Kira told the pilot of the white machine. "By the way, who are you? I don't remember ever seeing a machine like yours around here! And who are you, by the way?"

"You can call me Anthony Russo. Still, you did a good job, kid! I don't think I ever saw anyone handle a machine like that so easily, even a Coordinator!" the pilot of the white machine answered. "As for my machine, well, that's actually my customized Mobile Suit. It's one of a kind, so it's no surprise you never saw anything like that before."

"I understand…" Kira answered. "But right now… we have some more pressing needs! ZAFT has attacked this colony, and the civilians are in danger! We need to protect them and get away from here!"

"You're right about that, kid!" Anthony said. "Let's go help your friends! I'm afraid this colony won't last much longer… by the way, do you have any news of someone by the name of Rena Imelia?"

Kira shook his head. "Sorry, I'm afraid I haven't…" he never got to finish what he was about to say as a familiar white machine and an orange mobile armor had just entered the colony, along with a Moebius mobile armor which he had never seen at the colony when he experienced it before. "Oh man, not now…"

"I knew it!" scowled the older male upon the CGUE taking notice towards the two mobile suits on the ground below and was prepared to attack them only to be fired at by the damaged Moebius Zero, having lost all four of its Gunbarrels, and the Moebius with it.

Kira simply glared at the mobile suit that he knew that Rau Le Creuset is piloting and hasn't forgotten about what he did to Flay at Jachin Due in the original timeline and what he tried to do which could have led to humanity's end, however as the Strike was about to soar up to assist the two mobile armors, Murrue stopped him and said. "Wait, you're not seriously going to take on that machine are you?" she saw how determined he but knew that she needed to explain how he is outmatched. "That is a ZGMF-515 CGUE, a commander's machine and it's going to be much harder to take down with just the beam rifle."

"Well I can't let anyone in the colony get harmed can I?" he spoke, understanding that the Strike's PS Armor would protect him from the projectile and physical weapons… he figured that someone like Rau could find a way around that.

"If you're really that serious about taking on that ZAFT mobile suit, we need to get the Strike better prepared for fighting it…" she told him, knowing that they would need something that would be the best chance they have against it. "There might be a way… There is a truck not too far from here and it should have something that can help."

Kira remained silent, knowing that Murrue is right and figured that it would be the Launcher Striker though the downside is that if he fires the Agni Cannon then he'll end up damaging the colony like he did before but he had no other choice. "Alright, let's go find it" he said before having to use the shield to quickly defend his friends nearby from the bullet fire meant for him and Anthony. He soon sees the Moebius Zero attack the CGUE with its linear gun and the ZAFT mobile suit draws its sword out then proceeds with slicing the mobile armor's remaining weapon off. Turning his attention to the Snow Stalker, he said. "Think you can keep that mobile suit off my back until I get better prepared to face it?"

"I'm on it!" began Anthony, though he soon noticed that the Moebius was firing its missiles at the CGUE in which Rau managed to destroy them all with each and blocked the shots from the mobile armor's linear gun then took aim at it with the machine gun as the trigger was about to be pulled "Get away from her!"

A single beam shot was fired and it forced the masked commander to dodge the shot, making him and Rena wonder who fired it as they took notice to the Snow Stalker at the ground. "That mobile suit…" he said in his usual silky smooth tone though he realized that it looked familiar to him upon further inspection. "It couldn't be…"

"Rau Le Creuset," began Anthony. "I should've known it was you leading an attack on this colony."

Rau then gave an evil smirk as he couldn't believe his luck. Of the traitors known to ZAFT, Anthony Russo and Jean Carrey were the worst. He recognized the voice of who contacted him. It obviously wasn't Jean Carrey as Jean was with the Earth Forces and wasn't easy to track down for Coordinator Special Forces to eliminate him. Anthony Russo had flat out disappeared without a trace until he showed up at Heliopolis. "So the traitorous White Wolf is here at Heliopolis," he said with an evil cackle. "What are the odds I that would find you here White Wolf?" The CGUE raised its machine gun and started firing at the Snow Stalker.

"Damn you Le Creuset!" snarled Anthony as he evaded the shots from the CGUE. _Kid, I hope you can help me out here,_ he thought as he was engaged with Le Creuset.

Murrue and the civilians with her looked up and saw the battle taking place between the masked commander and the White Wolf. She saw that it was the perfect opportunity to grab the right trailer and turn the tide of battle against the ZAFT forces trying to destroy Heliopolis. Murrue pointed her gun at Kira's friend Sai Argyle and said, "You, I want you to get the number 5 trailer and bring it here. Hurry we don't have all day."

* * *

_Archangel-class Assault Ship, Archangel_

* * *

"Launch the ship?" asked Newman as he looked to his colleague Ensign Natarle Badgiruel. "That's impossible with the amount of people we have right now."

"The time you're wasting could be spent getting this ship ready for combat," snapped Natarle. "For all we know, Morgenroete could still be under attack!"

"Ma'am, I've rounded them up for you!" The current crew of the Archangel gathered into the bridge and the black-haired ensign sat in the captain's chair upon hearing that then her face turned serious.

"To your stations!" she ordered as they went to work to preparing the Archangel for launch and it wasn't easy either. System checks had to be made and everything had to be double and triple checked quickly despite the debris blocking the way out. "As the ship comes online, be prepared to fire the assault cannons! Commence launch sequence!"

As the ship was starting to come online, the two Lohengrin Cannon were unveiled as it was slowly preparing to leave its hanger though they need to hurry as the ZAFT forces may still be attacking the colony.

* * *

Within ten minutes, Sai had gotten the number 5 trailer and got out of the truck "The number five trailer, this is what you wanted, right?" he asked Murrue.

"Yes," answered Murrue before looking to Kira. "Attach the Striker Pack quickly."

Kira took to a deep breath as he saw the Striker Pack he was going to attach to the Strike and it was the Launcher Striker. _Here we go again…_ He thought as he remembered what happened when he used the Launcher Striker for the time and it didn't go so well as he had blown a hole into Heliopolis. Never the less, did as he was told.

20 minutes had elapsed in the aerial fray between the White Wolf and Le Creuset with both pilots equally matched and not giving up an inch on each other. As they exchanged blows, some ground exploded revealing a white battleship coming out of what looked to be a hangar.


	3. Phase 2: Archangel's Flight

Disclaimer: See chapter 1. Sasuke Blaze, Rin Canaver and Miyuki Star belong to me of course while Rengi Canaver is the property of NEBSparky86 while Fiona Grayden belongs to Lily Nadesico and Anthony Russo is owned by Wingcomannder White Wolf.

Gundam Seed: Kira's Rebirth

Phase 2: Archangel's Flight

By EmperorDraco7 and co-written by Lily Nadesico and NEBSparky86

Everyone watched in shock as a new warship appeared before them and as it floated in the air, Murrue was the one who recognized what it was. "The Archangel…" she spoke, she couldn't believe that it managed to survive the explosions from earlier but never the less, she was glad it did though Rau was less than thrilled at this turn of events.

"No, they failed to destroy it," he said under his breath as he CGUE remained in place for a little more than a few minutes. It was then the ZAFT mobile suit was prepared to attack, only for the Strike to fire its shoulder-mounted Gatling cannon to keep the masked commander away from the ship.

"We've broke through the harbor's exit!" reported Neumann. "We've just entered the colony's interior."

"Morgenroete's been destroyed and the Strike is now activated! It's in combat against a ZAFT mobile suit and another mobile suit is with it!"

"Oh great…" muttered Natarle, not liking the sound of that and realized that if the Strike is the only mobile suit that is fighting the enemy, then that could only mean that the other four machines have already been taken. However she wondered about the other machine that was with it and whose side it was on.

In the meantime, Rau fired his machine gun at the Strike and frowned upon seeing that it wasn't doing any damage to the remaining Earth Alliance Gundam. "Not even an enhanced APSV can penetrate Phase Shift..." he spoke and was able to destroy one of two missiles fired from the Archangel while easily dodging the remaining one which unfortunately hit the shaft, horrifying the Heliopolis students.

To Kira, this would be at this point where he fires the Agni Cannon for the first time but that is something that he doesn't want to do since he knows that would happen when he does so he instead fired the Gun-Launchers at the CGUE. Rau skillfully dodged the attack, privately wondering what kind of pilot he was facing. He did seem a beginner at first glance, but the masked ZAFT ace knew a good pilot when he saw one, and he could understand that the one he was facing was either very good for a beginner, or had more experience than it looked like.

"These movements… a Natural cannot pilot a Mobile Suit so skillfully." He said to himself, drawing his machine's heavy sword as the Strike went for a direct attack. "There is no doubt, this one is a Coordinator. And a rather skilled one at that too."

In the meanwhile, Kira was recalling the piloting style of the opponent he was facing, and he didn't like it one bit – there was no way to mistake it, it was no doubt the mastermind behind the whole First Bloody Valentine War, Rau Le Creuset… the man who had killed Flay in cold blood in the timeline he had come from! The thought sent a jolt of rage through Kira's system… but this time, the young Coordinator was able to keep it inside and concentrate on the battle itself. _"This is Rau Le Creuset, no doubt about it…" _Kira thought to himself. _"If only I could manage to take him out right now, maybe things will be a lot easier, and the war won't escalate as much as it did…"_

"Hey kid!" Suddenly a sword was thrown at him and he managed to catch it before noticing that it was the white mobile suit that helped him earlier. Inside the cockpit, Anthony knew that the even with the Launcher Striker equipped…. It wouldn't come with any weapons for close-combat. "Good luck and make sure he doesn't get close to the ship!"

With that, Kira furrowed his brow and went for a lunging attack with the sword that the Snow Stalker sent to him, but Rau Le Creuset showed to be every bit as skilled as Kira remembered him to be, and calmly dodged the slash before countering with his own attack, nicking the Strike in the arm. There was a small burst of electrical sparks coming from the Strike's elbow joints, and Kira yelped in surprise as the Gundam's limb became harder to move. With a frown, he realized what Rau's idea was: since the masked man had realized that there wasn't much he could do against Phase Shift Armor since physical weapons are worthless against it, he had started targeting the joints and other vulnerable places in the Strike Gundam's body, where Phase Shift Armor wasn't quite as strong. And it was working too… the Strike's right arm had gotten difficult to move and was hindrance his movements.

"You are an interesting one, boy…" Rau Le Creuset said, with a small smirk on his face. "I can definitely feel some great potential in you. Left to your own devices, you might become a serious threat to ZAFT."

"I am not… going to die here!" Kira answered. "And I will not allow you to get away with your schemes, Rau Le Creuset!"

Creuset was not the kind of person who was easily surprised, and even when he was, he was very good at keeping his composure. But this time, he was caught off guard to such an extent that he couldn't help frowning. How did this person know his name, and what he was planning? However, he soon regained his composure and skillfully defended himself from a slash from the Strike Gundam's sword, but this time, the masked ace pilot was forced to go on the defensive.

"_This person seems to know a lot about me…"_ Rau thought to himself as their swords clashed, and the Mobile Suits inched backwards. "This could potentially be a problem… I need to take him out, and soon." With a sudden burst of speed, Rau's CGUE dashed towards the Strike and rammed it with all of its might, throwing the Gundam off balance. Kira gritted his teeth as he was thrown around in the cockpit, and tightly gripped the handle, trying to regain balance before Creuset could attack again.

As the fighting took place, the Snow Stalker was making its way towards where the Moebius Zero had landed and the White Wolf had a feeling on who the pilot was since the disastrous Battle of Endymion. However as soon as the mobile suit touched the ground, Anthony saw that Rena was about to land as well though while he wasn't too preoccupied with that, he was glad his wife is alive.

Without another thought, he contacted the pilot of the damaged Moebius Zero and said with a serious expression. "Mobile Armor pilot, please respond! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine… though my Zero has seen better days" came the voice of none other than Mu La Flaga through communications, just as Anthony thought. Though a few minute later, Mu continued. "You're the Arctic White Wolf aren't you? The only question is why are you here… and why did you help Instructor Imelia?"

"We'll talk about it later…" he told the Hawk while picking up the severed linear cannon, knowing now wasn't the time to speak as he knew that Rau was still fighting the Strike and the pilot was having a bit of a hard time against that CGUE. "You need to get onboard that ship fast, you're no help to anyone if you get killed."

Mu remained silent at this but he couldn't argue with their mysterious ally since his mobile armor's weapons were destroyed… taking him out of the fight completely and began flying it towards the Archangel, accompanied by the White Wolf along the way.

"Dammit…" Kira muttered a curse, he didn't think that something like that would happen to him… then again, it never happened in the previous timeline due to him having damaged the CGUE with the Agni Cannon before Rau could have done something like that. However, he saw the CGUE readying its machine gun and flew at him.

"I'll take you down now while I have the chance!" yelled Rau, he knew that while the Phase Shift Armor would protect the Strike from any physical weapons… the Striker Packs on the other hand are vulnerable so one well placed shot would take away the Strike's only advantage in the battle. Just as he was about to open fire, a yellow shot managed to blow a hole onto the gun, destroying it instantly. "What the?!"

The two took notice as the Moebius piloted by Rena Imelia herself had managed to stop the attack before it could even take place. "Stay from that machine!" she hissed, firing bullets at the CGUE to which Rau blocked them easily with his shield. Kira without saying a word proceeded with firing the Gatling-gun on the Strike's shoulder in order to help hold his opponent off but with the black-haired instructor, it was personal since her students fell trying to fight off the ZAFT forces and wanted revenge.

Along the way to the Archangel, Anthony was impressed with how well the Strike was doing against Rau… one of ZAFT ace commanders no less though he had a feeling the pilot wasn't a Natural due to its current performance. Never the less, he will need to join the fight if things take a turn for the worst. "That kid sure is something else… few people I know would be able to give Rau Le Creuset this much of an headache. Well, we'd better think of other things now…" he murmured to himself, before trying to establish a communication with the Archangel. After trying and failing for a few times, he finally managed to find the right frequency and hailed the Earth Alliance battleship. "Earth Alliance battleship? Earth Alliance battleship, do you copy?"

"Archangel, we copy." Natarle Badgirule answered from the other side of the communication. "I am Ensign Natarle Badgirule of the Earth Alliance Space Forces. Pilot of the unknown unit, please state your name and identification."

"My name is Anthony Russo, and I am on your side… though I don't expect you to blindly believe me…" the young man answered, knowing he was in a rather dangerous situation. "The unit I am piloting is my customized Snow Stalker."

"Anthony Russo? As in, the famed Arctic White Wolf?" Natarle answered, clearly worried about having to deal with a well-known ZAFT pilot. "What is the meaning of this? Why are you coming at us now, trying to be helpful?"

Anthony sighed, as he knew it would not be easy to convince the Earth Alliance personnel of his goodwill. However, he needed to at least make sure he wouldn't get shot at in his attempt to help out. "I know, I know… it's quite suspicious that I am coming at you and offer my help now, so unexpectedly… but it's a matter of great importance to me, and I'm sure it is for you as well. So… we'll just wash each others hands for now, and I'll explain how things really are later, okay? For now… please support me. I know I don't have much to back myself up, but it's all I can do for now."

Obviously, Natarle wasn't too keen on trusting a self-admitted ZAFT officer and unite a skilled one at that… but even if reluctantly, she had to admit that at the moment, they needed all the help they could get. "Okay… we'll trust you for now. But remember, we'll be keeping an eye on you, and if you try to sneak attack us, we will shoot you down at once. Is that clear?"

"Transparent." Anthony answered. "But you won't have to worry about that from me. After all, we need each others help for now."

Natarle seemed to accept that, even if with some reluctance, and quickly went back to try and take the Archangel out of danger zone. "Alright then… maximize engine output, and only use the point blank defense weapons to hold back the enemy! We must try and get out of here!"

The Archangel redoubled its efforts to throw off its pursuers, while Kira and Rena were still locked in combat with Rau Le Creuset and a few more GINNs. "Just my luck…" he commented to himself as the GINNs joined the fight to help their commander. Without saying another word, he fired the Strike's CIWS and the Gun-Launchers only for Rau to use the Vulcan on his CGUE's shield to blow up the missiles while dodging the bullets.

"You need to do a lot better than that!" yelled the masked commander, locking with the Strike in sword combat once again.

Rena was barely able to hang in there as she was fighting a GINN that was approaching the Archangel and forced it away with her linear cannon. "Alright, no more fooling around…" she waited for the right moment to strike as she took aim again while avoiding the shots from the enemy mobile suit. "I got you!" she fired and managed to blow off the GINN's right arm with one shot and destroyed it with a second shot through the cockpit.

However, a second GINN managed to sneak up on her and the ZAFT pilot grinned as he was about to fire the finishing blow to obliterate the Mobile Armor but when he was preparing to pull the trigger on his recoil-less rifle…. An emerald beam drilled through his machine and nearly caught Rena off-guard before noticing that same mobile suit from before.

"That machine looks familiar…" she said to herself, though she would ask about the pilot later as for now defending the Archangel was her primary objective.

Inside the Snow Stalker's cockpit, Anthony stood in front of the Archangel as he targeted an attacking GINN with his Beam Sniper rifle and remained silent as he fired the shot, taking his opponent out permanently. He soon turned his attention towards the damaged Moebius Zero as it entering the Archangel and was in a way relieved to see that the Hawk managed to make it to the ship.

However, he soon saw a small group of GINNs armed with large missiles as well as other type of equipment and he realized what they were planning to do with those weapons. "Shit! That's D-Equipment!" he cursed, preparing to fire his weapon again only to see a GINN charging towards him with its sword armed. "Archangel, do you read me? A group of GINNs with heavy artillery meant for taking out bases is heading your way!"

Natarle stayed silent and knew that the ZAFT forces in the area aren't taking any chances with them after the appearance of the ship. "Activated Gottfrieds, target the enemy mobile suits approaching hurry!" she ordered the crew.

Soon a female voice was heard, catching the attention of everyone in the bridge as she said. "Ensign Badgirule prepare the catapult I'm heading out there as well!"

"What?" Natarle was a bit surprised by this though her face turned serious again as she knew that now wasn't the time to argue seeing that they need all the help they can get with this battle. "Very well, but be careful out there."

"Understood." said the voice before ending communications. In the hanger, a custom-colored Moebius, whose colors are red and blue, was loaded into the port-side catapult as a female pilot in the cockpit had her helmet on and prepared to launch into the battle that was happening outside. "Jane Houston, launching!"

Upon being hurled from the Archangel, the mobile armor headed to where Rena was just as the Archangel fired both of its Gottfrieds at the group of GINNs, causing them to scatter. Jane soon added to the assault by firing bullets at a nearby enemy mobile suit that she could take on.

Rau spotted the mobile armor approaching and firing at him. Rau dodged fire from incoming Moebius and begin to return fire at the mobile armor. "Now who do we have here?" he asked himself as he didn't recognize whose combat style he was up against.

Jane Houston kept fighting against Rau which caught Rena by surprise. "Mobile armor pilot, what are you doing?" The raven-haired instructor asked Jane. "Don't worry about me; help the Archangel intercept those GINNs. We can't let Heliopolis get destroyed by those GINNs with that damn D-equipment."

"Yes Instructor Imelia," acknowledged Jane as she turned her Moebius towards the GINNs. Blonde-haired mobile armor pilot punched her Moebius to its top speed to intercept the incoming GINNs. "Can't let them destroy Heliopolis," she said to herself as she charged at the GINNs.

* * *

On board the Silver Fang, Rengi was busy checking out every system on his 'partner' Gundam Astray Silver Frame. "Let's see now," he began as he examined Silver Frame. "75mm CIWS is properly calibrated. All weapons have been properly calibrated. Need to test them out to make sure they work properly.

While he was busy with; making sure that his partner was working properly, Roux was meeting with Andrew Waltfeld and his girlfriend Aisha. "So, are you willing to work with a crew that runs on chaos and silly antics?" the ZAFT Commander asked Roux.

Roux had sweat drop on her head as Andrew asked it but if she could at least keep Z Gundam as her machine then maybe joining the Silver Tigers would be a good idea. "Alright, I'll join the Silver Tigers," she said with a smile.

"Perfect," Andrew said with a grin. "Now there's something we gotta do before you can officially be part of the Silver Tigers."

"Oh?" asked Roux as she cocked her head in interest. "What would that be?"

"I'm sure you saw that our favorite Natural has reflective silver stripes painted on his arms and face," began Aisha.

"I noticed the stripes on his face," began Roux, "but I didn't notice any stripes on his arms."

"Oh yes," Aisha said with a grin on her face. "It's part of joining the Silver Tigers. Now let me paint those stripes on your face and arms."

Aisha began painting the tiger stripes on Roux's face and would take a while to do. It was then that Andrew left his girlfriend to paint the tiger stripes on Roux's face and arms before the younger woman asked. "Tell me, is this required for everyone in the Silver Tigers?"

"Yes it is," answered Aisha as she continued to paint Roux's face. "Andy decided after Ensign Canaver refused to remove the paint from his body that maybe his look would look good and be able to distinguish us from other units in ZAFT."

"That's... interesting," Roux said as she tried to figure out the right words to say.

"Yeah," Aisha said after giving off a slight chuckle. "But we all like it and I think you'll get used to it."

"I hope you're right," said Roux as Aisha was halfway done with the silver stripes on the left side of Roux's face.

An hour later, Rengi had finished completing checks Gundam Astray Silver Frame and then went to work on a project as he gathered supplies and headed towards an empty unused locker area. "Hang on Silver," he said to himself, "I'll help you get out of giant mobile suit body and into one that's more human-like."

He opened up a data pad with a blueprint of Gundam Astray Silver Frame he copied from Morgenroete. With the blueprints, he began to build a human-sized version of his partner Silver. His first order of business was to build the torso and power source.

* * *

Back in the colony of Heliopolis, Jane was having a rough time against the GINNs as they weren't making things easy for the EA pilot. "Damn it!" snarled as she did a barrel roll to the right to avoid a GINN sword coming down hard. "If this keeps up, we won't be able to save Heliopolis… what can we do?"

"I'm afraid we will have to leave this place as soon as we're positive that the last remaining G-Weapon is onboard the Archangel!" Rena said from her own Moebius. "We cannot hold this place for long, the enemy is very powerful, and they have the stolen G-Weapons on their side as well…"

"I know…" Jane murmured. "I just wish we could do something more… how is the evacuation going? Are the civilians safe?"

Rena sighed. "I'm not sure… we are doing the best we can, under the circumstances, but I'm not sure they all managed to get away in time… by the way, the Archangel has come across a few escape pods from Heliopolis, and I think they are about to take them onboard."

"I see. That's good news at least." Jane answered, before firing her linear gun at the enemy GINN that was the closest to her. The shot managed to damage the Mobile Suit's arm and blew off its shoulder, keeping it from using its Ion Cannon, but a few more enemies were piling up, and making things harder on her… "Ugh… I just hope the Strike can get back to the Archangel soon, because we're not going to be able to hold out much longer!"

* * *

Meanwhile, onboard a lifepod…

Fiona Grayden kept her fingers crossed as she watched the vastness of space and the multitude of Mobile Suits and Mobile Armors shooting at each other. She and several other Heliopolis refugees had managed to get inside an escape pod at the last possible moment, before the ZAFT Mobile Suits could overtake the colony, but now the situation looked more and more dangerous with every passing minute. The fact that the escape pod was absolutely stuffed with people didn't help her current state of mind any… but she forced herself to remain calm and tried to help the other refugees do the same.

"Please, everyone, try to hold it together…" she said, addressing the rest of the crowd that had crammed themselves into the fragile lifeboat. All it took was a misfire from one of the fighting Mobile suits, and that pod would have become their fiery grave. "I know we're in a rather bad situation, but as for now… there isn't much we can do about it. We need to stay calm… the Archangel will definitely come and pick us up a soon as things have calmed down!"

"What? How can you say that so easily?" a middle-aged man's voice exclaimed. Tempers were on edge, and people were likely to lash out to the closest possible target in order to get rid of the emotional baggage. "Dammit… you saw that yourself didn't you? Right now, they're too preoccupied with fighting their own petty stupid war to care about a group of refugees such as us!"

"He's right, you know!" a woman exclaimed. "And what was the deal with Mobile Suits being created in our colony? This is a blatant violation of neutrality! We demand explanations!"

"I want to go back home! I don't want to die!" a young boy cried.

Fiona tried to assuage everyone. "Please… please, everyone, just listen to me, okay?" she aid. "I know we're all nervous and angry right now, not to mention we're in danger… but I don't know much about it either – I mean, I am just a technician at Morgenroete, and my superiors didn't tell me much about the whole debacle… but rest assured, the Archangel will come back for us! It's all a matter of time… I know some of those folks, and I can attest they will certainly help us!"

Fortunately, Fiona would be right as a certain white mobile suit had just noticed the lifeboat and inside the cockpit, Anthony Russo looked concerned as it shouldn't even be within the battlefield in the first place. "Why now of all times…" he told himself as he was prepared to retrieve it when his alarm warned him that something was approaching.

"Time to die you traitor!" yelled one of the GINN pilots, firing the recoilless rifle at the Snow Stalker only for round to be destroyed by one shot of the Sniper Rifle and the second beam went into the cockpit.

Remaining silent for almost a few seconds, he placed his sniper rifle away and grabbed hold of the lifeboat… "Let's see if we can get you to the Archangel" he said, making his way towards the EA Warship as it was continuing its escape from Heliopolis despite the GINNs attacking it along the way. He hailed the ship. "Archangel, I have a lifeboat with me and I'm bringing it onboard."

"What was that?" wondered Natarle in disbelief, normally they wouldn't allow any refugees onboard their vessels as it wouldn't be right for any civilian to be involved in warfare but since there was no time to argue, there would be an acceptation. "Very well, bring it in quickly."

While this was happening, Kira was still having a bit of trouble against Rau's CGUE and realized if it kept up then he will have no choice but to actually fire the Agni Cannon. Which was something he couldn't risk doing without having to repeat what happened the first time he went up against the masked commander. Needless to say, he noticed the Archangel firing its signal flares as a sign for all forces to return and to him; it was time to get back to the others. "Looks like that's it then…" he spoke to himself, firing the Gun-Launchers at Rau to force him to take them out with ease.

"Where do you think you're going?" demanded the masked commander, preparing to make his next move on the Launcher Strike upon seeing it head towards the new warship and barely managed to avoid being hit by one of the shots fired from the Valiants.

"I'll deal with you some other time!" Kira told his opponent, knowing that the safety of the colony and the civilians came first as well as that more fighting would result in its complete destruction.

Rau gritted his teeth as he watched the Strike withdraw. He wanted to attack it, but the Archangel was formidable and it was suicide to try and attack it or the Strike. You may have gotten away now," he muttered to himself. "But next time you won't be so lucky!"

Kira glared at the retreating CGUE and then returned to the Archangel where his friends and Flay were waiting for him. He hoped that he wouldn't have to go through that ordeal about him being a Coordinator and having guns aimed at him.

* * *

Onboard the Silver Fang, Aisha was finishing up her work with Roux, painting silver tiger stripes on her face. "There," he said, having the younger female see her face in the mirror. "What do you think?"

"Hm... not bad," answered Roux as she inspected Aisha's work. "I like it a lot. Nice job."

"Why thank you," Aisha said with a smile. "Now we gotta work on your arms."

Roux gave a slight nod and unzipped part of of Morgenroete uniform to reveal that she wore a lavender undershirt that matched the color of her hair.

"Okay, before we start on your arms, we gotta put your hair in a ponytail," Aisha said to Roux as she grabbed one of her scrunchies and began to put Roux's hair in a ponytail like she said. "I don't want your hair to get silver paint on your hair by mistake.

"Agreed," said Roux as she helped Aisha. "I wonder what Rengi is doing. And here I thought he wanted see my induction."

Aisha chuckled as she finished putting Roux's hair in a ponytail and replied, "Well ever since he got back from Heliopolis with that Gundam he's now piloting, he's been a little secretive."

"Eh, secretive?" Roux asked in surprise. "How so?"

"Well, Rengi's specialty was going to be robotics and advanced computer programming," explained Aisha. "He was in the middle of building a smaller version of the current mobile suits that ZAFT has and then joined the war effort. Chairman Clyne was... surprised to see that Rengi, a Natural, was willing to fight against the Earth Forces. Some of the ZAFT commanders had their doubts about letting Rengi join ZAFT and feared that he might turn on us."

"But Rengi proved them wrong, right?" guessed Roux.

"You got it," answered Aisha with a cheerful smile. "Most of the ZAFT commanders have already relinquished their doubts about Rengi's loyalty. But they keep him guessing about when they'll trust him."

Rengi was certainly busy while during the attack on Heliopolis. He was having a bit of difficulty trying to create the torso for Silver's body. "Damn it," he snarled before getting an idea. "Wait a minute; I can use the torso from the miniature GINN I was going to build. Hell yeah! I never liked the GINN anyway." He then spent another two hours completing the covering for the smaller version of Silver Frame.

"Very nice," Roux said as she inspected tiger stripes on her right arm.

"I should start a body art business," Aisha said with a smile and grin.

"Maybe you should," agreed Roux

Aisha then began to paint Roux's left arm and would be at it for another three hours. While she was finishing up with being inducted into the Silver Tigers, Rengi had finished building and testing Silver's new body. "Alright, now to get Silver into his new body," he said to himself as he put Silver's new body in a crate and made his way back to the hangar. On the way there, he about ran over his CO Andrew Waltfeld.

"Whoa kid, where are you taking this crate?" the older man asked Rengi.

"I'm going back to the hangar, sir," answered Rengi.

"Hmm... something tells me you just finished this recently," Andrew said as he scratched his chin for a moment. "What the hell, I'll go with to the hangar and whatever this thing is."

Andrew and Rengi went to the hangar with the crate. The young Natural then set up the crate in front of Silver Frame and then he looked to his partner.

"Silver, wake up buddy," Rengi called out to his partner mobile suit.

"Uh, are you alright kid?" Andrew asked Rengi.

"Silver, can you hear me?" Rengi asked his mobile suit.

Rengi's response was heard by Silver Frame and its silver eyes came to life and it looked down to its pilot and Andrew.

"What the?" asked a startled Desert Tiger as he eyed now active Silver Frame.

"Silver, I got a surprise for you," Rengi said as he waited for Silver to look at the crate.

Silver did just that and Rengi gave a slight nod to Andrew and Andrew returned the slight nod with his own and helped open the crate. What Andrew saw startled him; he saw a smaller version of the obtained Gundam Astray Silver Frame in front of him and the real Gundam Astray behind him.

"Huh, I'll be a son of a gun," Andrew said after giving a whistle of amazement.

Silver looked at the smaller body, examined it and entered the smaller version of himself, reentered his original body and reentered the smaller body.

"Well Silver, can you move?" Rengi asked Silver as the AI had returned to the smaller body.

Silver remained silent and moved his arms, one at a time then moved his legs one at a time.

"Well, it looks like you can move Silver," Andrew said to the AI. "Can you speak?"

Silver gave no reply but just flashed his eyes. Then Silver began to step foot out of the crate.

"Very good Silver," Rengi said with a beaming smile on his face and ran a few tests and confirmed that Silver's smaller body was working properly.

"Hey kid, mind if I borrow your robot for a little test?" Andrew asked Rengi.

"Silver, isn't a robot," answered Rengi. "But sure. Go with Commander Waltfeld, Silver." Silver silently followed Andrew back to his private quarters.

* * *

Onboard the Archangel, the Strike has finally docked along with the Snow Stalker and the Moebius units, including Mu's trademark and at the moment damaged Moebius Zero… and the pilot were taking a breath of relief, glad that they had at least managed to stave off ZAFT for now… sadly, Kira knew it was going to be just a momentary respite, and that soon enough, the Le Creuset Team would be back, and he would have to go out in the Strike once again. Still, the fact that he knew what to expect made him a little more confident, and then again, there was the fact that a few unexpected allies had shown up to make things easier.

"Things have happened rather differently from last time…" Kira mused to himself, knowing that the two Moebius units and the Snow Stalker weren't around in the previous timeline as well as the fact that Heliopolis still stood was proof of that. "Thanks to those two Earth Alliance officers on board, we have a few more firepower on our side. Maybe this will make it easier on us this time… although I still have no idea why I cannot go SEED any more. Well, I will have to think about it later… for now, let's see how things are…"

The young Coordinator dismounted from the Strike's cockpit and looked around, seeing the pilots of the Moebius taking off their helmets – he immediately recognized Mu La Flaga, but the two young woman, one blond and one with black hair, that were stepping on the hangar's railings just then were new to him, and he could see Anthony's Snow Stalker standing on the other side of the platform, right next to a lifeboat that had been just taken onboard. Yes, things were definitely different from earlier… and he hoped this would mean that it would have ended better as well.

Kira silently floated down, hoping that his friends were all safe, and one of the two women, namely the blonde, immediately turned her attention to him. "Huh? Hold on a second, Instructor Imelia… that kid was piloting the Strike just now?" she asked, eyeing the young Coordinator suspiciously. "How is that possible… unless he's a Coordinator as well. A Natural cannot handle such a complex OS so easily!"

"Er…" Kira was taken aback for a moment, as the somewhat harsh tone in Jane's voice couldn't possibly have been missed. "Well, as a matter of fact, yes, I am a Coordinator… guess it's no use hiding that at this point…"

"And if he was a Coordinator, what's it to you?" Lt. Mu La Flaga intervened, calmly but firmly walking over to the two women. "Not to be cheeky or anything, but this kid just risked his own skin to allow us to get out of hot water, and he never asked for anything in return. While it's kinda unusual for a civilian to be in such a situation, I think the least we can do is thank him for a job well done, right?"

"Lt. La Flaga…" Jane answered. "You mean you don't care that this guy is a Coordinator? Couldn't he be a spy sent by ZAFT to keep a watch on us?"

Mu shook his head. "Hard to believe that. I saw him in action, and he was fighting against Rau Le Creuset himself." The Moebius Zero ace pilot said. "If he really was a spy, he definitely wouldn't have done something so incriminating, don't you think so?"

"That's true." Rena answered. "I fought alongside him as well. What he's saying is the exact truth."

"Well…" Jane answered, caught off guard by the revelation. "If that is the case, I guess I stand corrected… but I still have no idea what reason this kid has for joining us."

Mu nodded. "I can't deny you have a point on that, Instructor Imelia…" he answered. "So… first things first, kid, what's your name?"

Kira cleared his throat. "Um, right… sorry, I was so caught up in everything that I forgot to introduce myself…" he answered. "Anyway… my name is Kira Yamato, and I am a student of engineering at Heliopolis."

Rena simply remained silent for a few seconds, then gave him a serious glance as she then spoke. "I see, still why would a civilian like you operate one of the new top secret mobile suits anyway?" she knew that it doesn't make any sense for someone other than the Le Creuset Team to find out about the new machines. "In any case, while we are grateful that you managed to keep this unit from falling into the hands of the enemy, we can't allow you or your friends to leave the ship."

"Then again, it isn't just a coincidence that there would be Coordinators in Heliopolis itself" came a familiar female voice as Lieutenant Murrue Ramius joined the group accompanied by a familiar raven-haired Ensign and several of the other crew members of the ship, wanting to see if Kira was alright. "After all, the colony belonged to the Orb Union and they are a Neutral Nation after all so it would sense for some to seek refuge from the war... am I wrong?"

"No you're right" answered the younger man with a nod, knowing this was almost exactly like the first time he revealed that he was a Coordinator though the difference is that he didn't have guns raised at him this time around. "Especially since I'm a first Generation Coordinator."

"So your parents are Naturals then…" began the Hawk, confusing everyone present within the area upon hearing that answer and he turned his attention towards the Strike itself then continued. "As we made our way here, I've seen the pilots who were supposed to operate those units running through some simulations and they really had to struggle in order to get them to move yet Instructor Imelia seemed to be able to operate them without too much trouble but the OS itself was still the problem." He realized that he hasn't introduced himself to the two senior officers yet. "Where are my manners, I'm Lieutenant Mu La Flaga."

"Lieutenant Murrue Ramius, sector 2, 5th special division…. I'm a crew member of this ship."

"Ensign Natarle Badigrule, same division" Natarle joined in salute, though she was a bit curious on the pilot of the mysterious Snow Stalker and what his motives were though as there were currently technicians helping the civilians within the lifeboat out onto the hanger

"I would like permission to come onboard this vessel" the blonde-haired pilot told the two women, knowing that his previous ship was destroyed in the fighting that ensured earlier and his mobile armor had been damaged. "May I ask who is in command?"

"The captain and most of the superior officers had perished during the attack on the colony and a dozen of us remain, most of which are non-commissioned officers while I was in the shaft" Natarle explained to Mu, remembering when she first discovered that she and a few others were the only ones to have survived. "I believe that Lieutenant Ramius is next in command."

Murrue was horrified, she couldn't believe that the captain of the Archangel was killed when the Le Creuset Team made their raid earlier and Mu spoke before she could say something. "This is some mess…." He told himself then clearing his voice and continued to the brunette. "In any case, please grant me permission Lieutenant Ramius."

"Very well, Lieutenant La Flaga consider your permission granted. " said Murrue, allowing the Hawk to join them and she knew that it was only a matter of time before the Le Creuset Team would send more troops after them so their first order of business is to get away from Heliopolis as soon as possible.

* * *

"Very good cup of Java, Silver," Andrew Waltfeld said as he enjoyed the cup of coffee Silver had roasted, ground up and brewed up for him as a test.

The miniature mobile suit gave a slight nod. "You're free to go to back to your partner," Andy said as he opened the door and took another sip of his coffee.

Silver left Andy's quarters and went back to Rengi. The young Natural was hard at work making a shield as he was building on a smaller scale and with whatever materials he had. As for a weapon Silver could use, Rengi took the the GINN sword he constructed and put it in a sheath he made. The sheath would be placed on Silver's back instead of on the hip.

"Alright then, Silver should be back right about... now," Rengi said as the AI returned to Rengi's shop. "Ah, Silver great timing my friend. I've just completed the first set of weapons for you."

Silver looked at Rengi and then looked to the weapons Rengi had made for him and approached the first weapon made for him. "It's a GINN Longsword," explained he as he moved towards his partner. "I'm trying to make a replacement sword for you, but this was the only weapon ready for you at the time. I promise, once I get better materials I'll make you a better sword."

Silver noticed the shield, took a hold of it and flashed his eyes in satisfaction of the weapons being given to him.

Roux was finished with the silver tiger stripes being painted on her face. Aisha was taking her time as she wanted to make sure that she was doing a good job. "I like what you've done," she said to Aisha as she inspected Aisha's work on her own face.

"Thanks," replied Aisha. "Now let's get your arms taken care of."

Aisha then began work on Roux's left arm as this time she was going to get work done quick and Roux induction into Silver Tigers was in two hours then they would have to get back to work.

While Aisha was finishing work on Roux's arms, Rengi was having Silver download a training video of the art of Kendo.

"How's the training coming along Silver?" Rengi asked his partner.

Silver didn't answer but kept downloading and learning Kendo from Rengi's old training vids. It took Silver about 20 minutes to download the training video. Silver then grabbed the GINN Longsword and began practicing Kendo. Rengi then grabbed his sword and decided to put Silver to the test with a practice match. The match would go for 10 minutes as Silver was quick to gain the upper-hand and put Rengi on the defensive for half the sparring session until Rengi came back and put Silver on the defensive. Rengi then disarmed Silver and held his sword at Silver's throat. The session ended when Andrew Waltfeld clapped his hands as he had been watching the sparring session and sipping his coffee.

"Very nice," said Andrew after he took a sip of his coffee. "So now he can make coffee and use a sword too."

"Yes sir," Rengi said eagerly as he put his sword back in its sheath. "I still have some things to train Silver on. But that'll have to wait until I can construct the rest of his weapons."

"Guess you'll have to wait until we get back to the PLANTS, eh Ensign?" asked Andrew.

"Yes sir," answered Rengi. "At least my pals at the shop can help me construct the beam sabers, both beam rifles and the gun-launcher that goes with one of the beam rifles."

"You'll need to set up a training program," said Andrew.

"I'll use combat data from the Buster and if Silver and I have to go into battle soon," replied Rengi.

"Ah, clever idea," said Andrew and as finished off his coffee.

"Thank you sir," said Rengi as he looked at Silver. "We'll build the rest of your weapons when we get back to the PLANTS. I promise Silver, you have my word."

Silver flashed his eyes and gave a slight nod.

* * *

"Fine… let's take a look at these machines. They seem to be quite impressive." Rau Le Creuset said as he looked at the schematics for the Aegis, the Duel, the Buster and the Blitz. Onboard the Vesalius, the masked ZAFT commander, Captain Ades and the five redcoat pilots of the Le Creuset team, along with Miguel, were discussing the new machines they had gotten a hold of. "The Earth Alliance has made some impressive breakthroughs in Mobile Suit technology, it has to be said. If these Mobile suits had been used against us, it would have been a problem indeed."

"The OS is rather poorly programmed, however." Nicol stated, presenting to his superior a couple of sheets. "I have made an analysis of the program, and I have determined that it suffers from several bugs that prevent optimum performance. We will need to update the OS if we are to use the Gundams in combat."

"I see. Nice job, Nicol." Rau stated, giving a quick read to the essay Nicol had written. "In that case, see to it that you substitute the current OS with a more performing one. As for the rest, I have to commend you on a job well done. It would have been better to get a hold of the Strike as well, but considering the situation, what we do have is more than enough."

Yzak, sitting close to Shiho, glanced at her mockingly for failing to capture the fifth Gundam, but the girl simply ignored him, thinking he wouldn't have been able to do much better himself.

"In any event, pilot Hahnenfuss…" Rau went on, glancing in Shiho's direction. The female Redcoat immediately stood at attention, clearing her voice.

"Yes, sir. I am perfectly aware of my own failure to capture the Strike." She answered. "I apologize for this. Athrun and I were caught in a risky situation, and we found ourselves unable to do much more."

"That is not your fault, Hahnenfuss. You'll get your chance at redeeming this failure anyway." Rau answered. "I have already arranged for a CGUE Deep Arms, a new customized CGUE model, to be brought onboard the Vesalius. As soon as we receive it, it will be entrusted to you. I know you will be able to make good use of it."

Remaining silent for all but a few seconds, she nodded her head and saluted to her Commander. "Thank you, I promise not to let you down" she told him as she knew that the CGUE DEEP Arms will serve to help for the next battle.

"I'm sure that you won't," explained Rau, nodding to the female pilot then turned his attention towards the rest of his team. "I'm sure that you are well aware that we cannot allow the Earth Alliance to remain in possession of the fifth mobile suit… if we can't capture it then we shall destroy it along with the new warship."

"Sir, what about Anthony Russo?" asked Dearka, having heard that the Arctic White Wolf was inside the colony defending the ship from the GINNs earlier and he has no idea why he is choosing to fight against ZAFT now.

"Russo has made his choice" the masked-commander told the blonde-haired elite with a serious expression on his face. "As of right now, he is a traitor to the military and is considered as the enemy but don't underestimate him or the remaining machine."

The pilots saluted, knowing that they need to be ready for what is to come as their commander continued. "For now, we shall prepare ourselves as we will need to keep an eye on the new ship and what their next move will be."

"So far they haven't detected us" explained Ades, while the enemy warship has two Mobile Suits and three Mobile Armors; they shouldn't be taken lightly in any case. "This should give us the element of surprise for when we find out what they intend to do now"

Athrun was in deep thought though as he never would have thought that an Ace ZAFT pilot like Anthony would turn on them in the first place but he was more concerned about Kira as he remembered seeing him back at the factory district. _Kira… no it can't be, there's no way he could have been there. Never the less, when the next sortie takes place I'll have to find out for sure._

* * *

Back on the Archangel, Kira heard Tolle's voice from behind him and he turned to see his brown-haired friend approach where he was, accompanied by Mir, Sai, Flay, Kuzzey, Jessie and Misha. "Are you okay?" he asked the Coordinator as Flay gave him a fierce hug to which he gratefully returned.

"Yeah, I'll be fine…" he reassured Tolle though his attention would soon be turned back towards the senior officers of the ship as well as the mysterious mobile suit pilot who helped them back at Heliopolis. A lot was on the young Coordinator's mind at the moment – a lot of things had not gone exactly as he had expected them to go, and he wondered just how much things would differ from the way they had gone in the timeline he had come from… and whether he would be prepared enough to deal with them. "Anyway, are you guys okay too? I was pretty worried when I was fighting out there."

"Yes, we are all okay… a little scared in some cases, but we're okay…" Sai answered as he adjusted his own glasses. The young man couldn't help but feel a slight pang of jealousy over the fact that Kira and Flay were getting quite friendly with each other. Even though Sai and Flay were in an arranged engagement, Sai had a genuine crush on the redhead. "By the way, what's the deal with that Mobile Suit you were piloting? And there were four more of them… and all the other guys that showed up during all that mess… Kira, you happen to know something more about all of this, don't you?"

Kira was a little hesitant, as he looked around and saw the faces of his friends, most of which were looking quite worried and concerned. Not that Kira could blame them, of course… they still knew nothing of what was really going on, and if he tried to tell them, they would probably believe he had gone crazy. Still, he felt bad leaving them in the dark, especially since they had seen their home colony be destroyed in the process. "Well… I would be lying if I said I knew nothing about this…" the young boy said uneasily. "That… that lady of the Earth Alliance military who was in the Gundam with me told me a few things, so I have an inkling of what's going on… basically, our colony was hiding five new Mobile Suit models, that were being built in secret for the Atlantic Federation."

"What?" Tolle exclaimed in anger and disbelief. "Are you freaking kidding me? Some people were building Mobile Suits in our colony… a neutral colony… for the Atlantic Federation? What kind of fucked-up idea is that?"

"I'm not sure… Miss Ramius wouldn't tell me that much…" Kira said with a small sigh. "But the fact remains… that ZAFT discovered about the existence of these Gundams, and they've sent a strike force to attack Heliopolis and take possessions of them during the confusion. As of now, the Earth Alliance has managed to retain possession of only one Gundam… the Strike Gundam, the one I've been piloting just now."

"Say what?" Jessica exclaimed, as the other Heliopolis teens barring Flay were exchanging disbelieving glances. "You… you mean that… The fact that you can pilot one of those machines must mean that… you're a Coordintor, right?"

Kira breathed out. "Yeah, that's true. I am a first-gen Coordinator, to be exact."

"I can't believe it…" Kuzzey murmured, feeling somewhat uneasy at being around a Coordinator. He wasn't a special case – distrust against Coordinators was common place among Naturals, and had brought to the rise of fanatics like Blue Cosmos – but Kira hoped this reveal would not strain his relationship with his friends.

"But it's true.. Kira is a Coordinator, and it's something I came to understand and accept." Flay intervened. Everyone was quite shocked to see her take Kira's side, and holding one of his hands in hers! "And… I know it may come as a shock to you, especially if you think of how I used to be… but I have realized that Coordinators are people just like us, and they've got the same rights and emotions as we do."

"What?" Misha asked. "Are… are you sure about that, Flay? It sounds… Well, rather weird coming from you! You used to dislike Coordinators, last time I checked."

"I know…" was Flay's answer. "But now, I've changed my mind about that. Kira may be a Coordinator, but he's the nicest guy I could ever meet. He… he even saved me when I was in danger, the other day!"

"Why didn't you tell us before?" wondered Mir, she knew that Kira would never usually keep secrets from them but he never thought Flay would do so as well.

"It's a long story," she told the brunette, wanting to drop the subject at the moment and wanting to focus on the more important task at hand. "Right now we're on a new ship created by the Earth Alliance so who knows how long we will be saying."

Upon her finishing what she was saying, they all heard a familiar chirp; Birdy came out of Kira's shirt and flew towards Flay, landing onto her left shoulder. "Thank heaven's Birdy is okay as well" she added though that wasn't the only thing that got their attention as they heard a female voice not too far from them and noticed among the refugees was a certain blonde-haired girl being helped out of the lifeboat.

_What the…_ thought Kira, not wanting to believe what he was seeing… especially due to the fact that her being on the ship at this point, much like with Flay, is not what happened the first time around.

The girl turned her head, causing her eyes to widen at the sight of Kira with his friends and remembered him as the jerk who tried to get her into a shelter back at Heliopolis. The others could tell that she wasn't too thrilled with seeing them.

"It's you!" the blond girl exclaimed, quickly walking over to Kira and grabbing him by his shirt, shocking the purple-haired boy a little. He was used to the girl's somewhat forceful personality, but it really came as a surprise this time. "What the fuck were you thinking, you dumbass? You could have gotten yourself killed out there! And what was the big idea of getting into that Mobile Suit, anyway? Were you trying to play the big hero?"

"Hey, what's your problem, tiger?" Tolle exclaimed, trying to separate the blonde girl from Kira. "Kira was doing what he thought was the only thing to do in such a situation! We sure aren't blaming him for that, are we?"

Nervous and upset, the girl let go of Kira, who quickly drew a sigh of relief while Flay came to his side, in order to see if he was really alright. However, the blonde was still frowning at the young boy, and didn't seem to like what had just happened. "Tch… that may be true, still… it doesn't change the fact that those Mobile suits shouldn't have been there at all! And now you went and got yourselves involved with something way beyond what you can handle! Hope you're proud of yourself, idiot!"

"That's really too harsh on Kira, you know!" Sai protested. "And who are you, by the way?"

"Yeah… who do you think you are, to just waltz here and begin threatening Kira?" Tolle went on.

The blonde girl grunted and shook her head. "Well, if you really must know… my name is Cagalli, and I'm here for personal reasons you shouldn't get involved with." She answered. "You guys shouldn't even have known Morgenroete was building these Mobile suits… and Morgenroete shouldn't have been building them in the first place!"

"What are you talking about?" Misha demanded to know. "Now that we are in this mess, we would like to at least hear an explanation!"

"And by the way… your name is Cagalli, right?" Jessica went on. "As in, Cagalli Yula Athha, the princess of Orb? What's someone like you doing in such a place?"

This actually seemed to piss off Cagalli even more, as she turned to Flay's female friends with an angry frown on her face. "Don't call me a princess while we're in this place… or ever at all, for that matter!" she warned. "Follow this simple rule, and we're going to get along! As much as we could get along in such a situation, anyway…"

With that, the rebellious princess turned and walked away in a huff, leaving the whole team dumbfounded… just as a group of refugees, coming from the lifeboats that the Archangel has saved from the depths of space. They all seemed quite dazzled and confused, and several of them did not seem to fully understand the situation they were in.

Among them was a red-haired, tomboyish-looking young girl who was holding the hand of a scared little girl of no more than three years of age, who was looking left and right in confusion.

"Shh…." reassured the red-haired female, helping the little girl out of the lifeboat in which she hoped that they were in good hands and she herself was surprised by the sight of the hanger and its compliment. Though not as surprised as the Heliopolis students since it didn't take long for one of them to recognize her.

"Fiona?" asked Mir, not wanting to believe it and when the female took notice, her eyes widened in disbelief.

"Mir… Flay… What's going on? What exactly are you and the others doing here on this ship?"

"It's a long story, but to simplify it… ZAFT had attacked the colony and Kira managed to keep us out of harm's way with the assistance of the pilot of the white mobile suit and the two mobile armors" explained Flay, knowing that it must be hard to have to leave Heliopolis due to what had taken place. "Neither of us would have guessed you would be in that lifeboat."

"I managed to get to it thanks to an Orb officer warning me to get to a safe place back at Morgenroete before he went off to try and defend the colony" she told her friends, of course she frowned as had a bad feeling since she wondered what became of the other four Gundams if the Strike is still in EA hands. "I was fortunate that white mobile suit found us or we would have died but I take it a certain blonde-haired passenger wasn't too happy."

"I take it you saw what happened earlier then…" began Jessie; a nod from Fiona was her answer despite being surprised that the girl who walked off earlier was the daughter of Orb's Chief Representative Uzumi Nara Athha.

"So who is the little girl with you?" wondered Kira, a bit curious on whom Fiona brought out before but before she could answer, they heard Rena's voice nearby as she had a shocked expression on her face.

"Mama!" cried to the girl, happily hugging the black-haired instructor and had her eyes shut the whole time

"It's okay Kayla, you're safe now" said Rena, returning the embrace despite not wanting to believe what she was seeing before her… They soon felt a pair of arms holding onto them and saw that Anthony was relieved that the little girl was alright. This caught the attention of both the Archangel's crew and the students. "Anthony?" Rena asked, sounding halfway split between anger and disbelief. She frowned and stepped away slightly from Anthony, giving him the evil eye. "Hm. Fancy meeting you here, it seems everyone and their dog just has to meet onboard the Archangel… what brings you onboard this ship?"

"Mama?" Kayla, the little girl, answered, not really understanding what was going on. Deciding that quarreling with Anthony in front of her little daughter was not a good idea, Rena sighed and allowed her to get close to Anthony.

"It's okay, Kayla, sweetheart… you can go say hi to Daddy!" she answered, surprising the heck out of Kira and his friends, who were standing nearby. The little girl nodded and ran to Anthony, who bent down and embraces her, picking her up.

"Daddy!" she exclaimed, hugging him for all she was worth.

Anthony chuckled happily in return. "I'm glad to see this brave little girl is doing well! So, I hope you weren't too afraid!" he said. Kayla shook her head and smiled, putting on a brave face. "Oh, and I see you've got a friend of mine with you. Did this nice young lady help you getting on the lifeboat?"

"Yes, she did…" Kayla said, pointing at Fiona, who stepped forward and waved at Anthony and Rena, smiling in relief.

"I'm glad we were all able to get on the Archangel in one piece… and it's thanks to that person who piloted the Strike Gundam! He was really something back there!" Fiona said, before looking at Rena and bowing respectfully to her. "So… you are Rena Imelia, the famed Earth Alliance ace pilot? I am honored to meet you… my name is Fiona Grayden, and I'm a mechanic for Morgenroete… I was able to get all these people onboard the lifeboat before Heliopolis was destroyed, and I'm glad to know your daughter was among them!"

"I am grateful for what you did for us, Fiona…" Rena said with a nod. "You've handled yourself very well in that situation… and I think you should go and get some rest, all this mess must have been very exhausting for you too."

"Hehehee… don't worry, miss Imelia… with all the shifts I had to do recently at Morgenroete, this was a piece of cake!" Fiona said, waving her hand in front of herself as if saying this was no big deal. "I'm just glad I was able to help out… and I'm sure we will need all the help we can get, if we are to survive this."

"In any case… thank you again, Fiona." Rena reiterated.

* * *

Onboard the Silver Fang, Andrew and Aisha inducted Roux into the Silver Tigers unit before the next move was made by the masked-commander Rau Le Creuset. Andrew was weary of the masked-commander after happened during Endymion. After Endymion, Andrew sought to create a separate unit and once Rengi completed basic training he recruited the younger man for this new unit he sought to create. "Now what do we do, sir?" Rengi asked Andrew as he entered the bridge. "We know that Le Creuset isn't going to stop attacking Heliopolis until he either destroys or gets what what he wants from there."

"In other words, we can't do much of anything," assumed Roux as she had entered the bridge with Rengi.

"Yup, that's pretty much it," Andrew said with a sigh before turning to the radar officer.

"Has the Vesalius or the Gamow detected us yet?"

"No sir," answered the radar officer.

* * *

On the Vesalius Rau couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching him or precisely the operation. _'Who could be watching us?'_ he wondered in deep thought before he looked to the radar operator. "Can you tell if there are any other ships in vicinity?"

"No sir, nothing," answered the radar operator.

_'Hmm... they must be slightly out of our sensor range,'_ thought Rau. _'They're probably outside the Gamow's sensor range as well.'_

"Petty Officer, did you notice where the mobile suits exiting Heliopolis went to?" Rau asked the radar officer.

"Now that you mentioned it," began the radar operator.

"Eh? There were two mobile suits you said?" Rau asked the radar operator curiously.

"Yes sir," answered the radar operator.

_'Hmm... Morgenroete must've been establishing a mobile suit program for Orb,'_ thought Rau. _'But who among Morgenroete wanted to establish a mobile suit program? It wouldn't be Uzumi Nara Athha, he's too much of pacifist. That would leave only two of the other noble families in Orb, either the Seirans or the Sahakus.'_

"Uh sir, should we increase the range of our sensors?" the radar operator asked Rau.

"Yes, do it," answered Rau.

* * *

Nazca-class Destroyer, the Silver Fang

* * *

"Commander Waltfeld sir, we've been detected!" exclaimed the Silver Fang's radar operator.

"What? By who?" asked a stunned Andrew Waltfeld.

"The Vesalius sir," answered the radar operator.

"Damn it Le Creuset," snarled Rengi. "I hate that guy."

"Never heard of him," Roux said as she had never heard of the infamous Rau Le Creuset.

Then Aisha entered the bridge.

"Is something wrong guys?" asked Aisha.

"Le Creuset caught on to us," answered Andrew.

* * *

Back on he Archangel, Kira and his friends gathered at one of the civilian quarters on the ship as they were busy discussing what is going to happen now and how this will affect things to come. "How can he sleep at a time like this?" wondered Kuzzey, confused by the fact that Kira was sleeping on the top bunk of the bed.

"What happened earlier must have exhausted him" frowned Mir, a bit concerned for the brown-haired male. "It was most likely difficult, but who could blame him? Having to pilot that mobile suit in order to get us to safety and all."

"Still, what are we going to do now?" came Flay's voice as the red-haired girl took a glance at him for a moment then back to the others. "I highly doubt we'll be allowed to leave the ship so easily due to having witnessed something secretive."

"Yes, it is hard to argue against something like that…" added Kuzzey. "However…"

Sai was curious about what his friend was about to say. "Just what are you getting at Kuzzey?"

"Nothing really, when it comes to Kira all we can think to say is it's tough on him and we should leave it at that." He said to the boy with the glasses though his smile faded when he continued. "He was telling us about how he rewrote the OS for that mobile suit he was operating right? When did he manage to do that?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm saying that it usually won't be possible for Kira having any kind of knowledge of that thing" Kuzzey told Sai, having his arms crossed after mentioning it. "So when did he have time to rewrite the OS?"

Everyone present were thinking on that, normally it wouldn't have been possible for a person to do such a thing but ever since they found out that Kira is actually a Coordinator, it was something they couldn't get off their mind yet they were more surprised that Flay was the only one who knew this before any of them did. "I had suspected for a while that Kira was a Coordinator" Kuzzey soon continued with what he was saying. "Those Coordinators were by-products of genetic engineering; they can do all these mind-blowing things but to them it's just a little tough and don't forget that all those solders in ZAFT are like that as well. That's who the Alliance is fighting against, do they stand a chance?"

"Maybe, but not if their only mobile weapons are the Moebiuses as the ZAFT mobile suits can easily shoot them down…" came Fiona's voice as she decided to enter the room and join in on the conversation. "Do you mind if I join you guys?"

"No, not at all" smiled Mir, happy that Fiona could make it though she realized something that they forgot to mention earlier due to what the older red-haired female was currently wearing. "I was wondering, what is with the outfit? Were you helping Morgenroete when the colony was attacked?"

"Yeah… suffice to say, I know a thing or two about these Gundams." Fiona answered. "And while this information would normally qualify as top secret, for obvious reasons, I think there won't be any problem if I tell you something about them here."

"Maybe that will help when we… Kira, Instructor Imelia, Pilot Houston and Lieutenant La Flaga, I mean… will have to face them again." Sai commented. "So… what are these Gundams capable of?"

"Well…" Fiona started, counting on her fingers. "First off, we have the GAT-X105 Strike Gundam, the unit which was brought onboard by your friend. Its peculiarity is that it can be equipped with several packs known as Striker Packs that upgrade its weaponry, mobility, protection… it all depends which pack is used at that particular moment as so far there are three, the Launcher Striker, the Sword Striker and the Aile Striker. Therefore, the Strike is a very versatile unit, and it's kinda lucky that it's the one we were able to keep from ZAFT."

"We understand." Tolle answered. "Which one is next?"

"The GAT-X303 Aegis Gundam. You could well say that it's the Gundam we are most proud of at Morgenroete…" Fiona went on, taking on a certain air of pride as she described it. "You'll recognize it by the red color it takes when its Phase Shift Armor is active. It is meant as a command unit, because of its extremely powerful sensors and heavy attack power. Its Scylla Cannon is powerful enough to destroy even a spaceship… but it does take some time before it can be fired. Therefore, should you face it in combat, try to keep the Aegis occupied as much as possible, and don't give it a chance to fire the Scylla!"

Flay gulped. "We'll… remember that, and we'll tell Kira about it."

The older redhead nodded. "That would be wise of you. Next comes the GAT-X207 Blitz Gundam, designed for stealth. It uses the revolutionary Mirage Colloid technology to make itself invisible to both sensors and the naked eye. Plus, it has some very strange weapons that will catch you off guard, namely the Gleipnir anchor, and the Trikeros system, which combined several weapons in a single installation on its arm. It does have a weak point, though – its Phase shift Armor needs to be switched off in order to activate the Mirage Colloid. Of course… this does make it harder to locate it."

After a brief pause, in order to be sure that everyone was listening, Fiona continued. "The fourth one is the GAT-X103 Buster Gundam, a long-range artillery unit whose armament consists only of ranged weapons. In addition to normal shells, its Gun Launcher can fire some special ammunition, like armor piercing or high explosive rounds. Its main weakness is a lack of close-range weapons, so keep that in mind."

"Okay." Kuzzey answered. "And what about the fifth?"

"Last, but certainly not least, is the GAT-X102 Duel Gundam." Fiona explained. "Nothing too fancy here, at least for the standards of a Mobile Suit. It is armed with the head-mounted Igelstellung machine guns, two beam sabers, and a high-energy beam rifle which also doubles as a grenade launcher, it also comes with a powerful hyper bazooka. Still, don't underestimate it – it may not be as colorful and unpredictable as the others, but it's not any less deadly."

The others remained silent at this, they have a feeling that the Archangel is going to need some help now that they know about the five Gundams that were created at Morgenroete and that it's going to take more than just Kira, Mu, Rena and Jane as well as the pilot of that white mobile suit to be able to protect the ship they were now onboard. "Looks like we'll be here for a while huh?" began Mir, this was inevitable that it had to come to this.

"I'm afraid so, after all you guys witnessed something top secret…" frowned Fiona, nodding her head as she gave the brunette her reply.

"However, if Kira decides not to fight then our future won't be too good" added Sai as he knew that right now, Kira was the only one capable of piloting the Strike due to having rewritten the OS earlier back in the colony.

Mir turned to her boyfriend Tolle and said. "We're always sitting at the benches while we wait for Kira to fight and protect us, but right now things will take a turn for the worse if we don't do something."

"You're right… So if we have the power to make a different, we should try and put it to good use" he looked down, his hands curled up into fists with Sai and Kuzzey nodding to agree with Tolle on that statement.

"Just what exactly are you guys getting at?" asked Fiona, somewhat confused by what there are all getting at when Flay took a glance at the others then at Jessie and Misha before looking at the older red-haired female.

"I think I know what we need to do…" said Flay, realizing that once they go through with it there is no turning back at all and she feels that she needs to repay Kira in some way for having not only saved her from the rapists last year but also for something much more that she couldn't help but smile at the thought.

* * *

Onboard the Silver Fang, mechanics and technicians were going over both Z Gundam and Gundam Astray Silver Frame with a fine tooth comb. They were making sure that Morgenroete didn't leave any nasty surprises in case the machines they built were ever captured by the wrong people. Silver was in his mobile suit body helping the technicians with extracting data from his mobile suit body. Andrew watched as Silver was helping the technicians. Things were moving at a nice pace as Silver Fang and Tiger Den were following the _Vesalius_ and _Gamow_ as they were in pursuit of the Archangel. As for Z Gundam, Roux assisted the technicians with the data extraction.

"Alright Miss Louka," said the head technician. "We've completed the data extraction for your mobile suit."

"What about the Silver Frame?" asked Roux.

"The AI on onboard went through the data extraction a lot faster than we did the data extraction of your mobile suit," answered the head technician. "That's Silver for you," replied Roux.

The head technician gave a slight nod and said, "Right, I'll remember the AI has a name. It's a nice name and appropriate too."

"I'll tell Rengi you said that," Roux said to the head technician before looking to Silver Frame. "We're done here Silver. Let's leave the hangar."

Silver looked to Roux then flashed its eyes as the AI exited its mobile suit body to its smaller body. Once the AI was in its smaller human-sized body, it followed Roux out of the hangar and back towards the room Roux and Rengi shared together. Silver used an empty room that Rengi had set up with Andrew Waltfeld's permission. Roux entered their room and saw Rengi looking at the blueprints for Silver Frame's Beam weapons. He wanted Silver to have beam weapons like he did in his mobile suit body. She silently approached Rengi and then gently wrapped her arms around Rengi's neck with an evil smirk on her face.

* * *

As the senior officers on the Archangel were planning their next move, Lieutenant La Flaga was looking for Kira as he wanted to make sure that Kira was going pilot the Strike again as they were going to make their way to Artemis. As he was looking for Kira, he heard sounds of gentle moaning and pleasure coming from behind the door of Kira's quarters.

"Don't stop Kira," Mu heard Flay's voice from other side of the door. "You know I want more; keep going and make me the happiest girl in the Earthsphere."

"Oh Flay!"

"K-Kira!"

Mu just stood there listening to Kira and Flay as they seemed to be in heaven and giving each other a lot of pleasure. Mu smiled as he listened to the young couple and then once they reached their high, he sighed and said to himself, "I must be doing something wrong with my life."

* * *

Kira and Flay were laying together in the bed, wrapped in the sheets as they caught their breaths again, having experienced what they could easily call the greatest pleasure in their lives. The redhead slowly laid her delicate hand on Kira's chest, gazing at him lovingly as the two of them held each other close.

"What is it, Flay?" Kira asked, gently ruffling her hair. He could see that the young girl was quite nervous and worried, now that the reality of their situation came crashing back upon the both of them.

"Kira… where are we standing now?" she asked, clearly worried about the war, and the issues that they were about to face. Kira fell silent for quite a while, as he was at a loss himself about how to deal with the whole mess that had ensued. He knew that he had been given a second chance, and he was not about to squander it. And the first thing to do was, make sure the red-haired beauty laying at his side stayed safe and close to him.

"I have no idea, Flay… but I would like to see where we will go from here." He answered, enveloping her in a warm hug. Flay hugged him back and sighed, feeling reassured that he was going to protect her, even now that their world had been shattered by the harsh reality of war. After staying like that for some time, Kira finally smiled and motioned for Flay to get up and get ready to go to the main bridge. "Well then… I think we should go take a look at what's going on around here. You never know what's going to happen… and I've also got some ideas that could help us in the long run."

Flay nodded. "Of course…" she said, and the two teens quickly got dressed and straightened themselves before walking to the main bridge, where several members of the crew were gathered. He and Flay greeted Murrue with a military salute, to which Murrue answered with a short nod, before motioning for them to stand with the other Heliopolis students and Fiona.

"I'm glad you could join us, Kira. There are issues we need to discuss with you." She began. "First off, the most important, the whole deal with the Strike Gundam. As of now, you are the only one who can pilot it… therefore, I must ask you to remain its unofficial pilot at least until we can get more firepower on our side."

"I understand, I'll do whatever I can to help the Archangel through this…" explained Kira, having a feeling that things were going to end up this way. "By the way Captain, may I have a word with you?"

"Very well…" began the brown-haired captain, briefly exiting the bridge so their conversation can be in private yet she can't help but feel that there must be a specific reason to this. "Is there something you wish to speak with me about?"

Remaining silent for a few seconds, Kira thought back to the events of the other timeline and the fact that many lives were lost in the process because of it, however he also remembered the battles the Strike Rouge was in, from Jachin Due all the way to when he took it into space from Orb to save the Eternal from being destroyed by the ZAFT fleet near Earth's orbit though with a price of the mobile suit being damaged beyond repair… he still cringed at that thought and he had an idea on what he can tell her. "Yes I do… I know you wish for me to pilot the Strike into battle, however I'm not sure if Lieutenant La Flaga, Instructor Imelia, Crewman Houston or myself, even Captain Russo can defend the ship without some assistance…" he had an uncertainty in the tone of his voice when he said that as he knew that the timeline has changed since his arrival. "Then again, you are right… I am the only one capable of piloting the Strike at this moment but still…"

"What do you mean?"

"I have an idea that might benefit to the Archangel's survival if you're interested in hearing what I have to say" he continued, piping Murrue's curiousity as she wondered what he had in mind for such. "The hanger has some spare parts for the Strike am I right?"

"Yes, we do but I don't know where you're getting at." She told him, though she could tell that he might have a plan for what to do with those parts and she wanted to hear him out.

"What would you say that with some assistance of the tech crew, we can construct another mobile suit that can aid us in our fights to come?" asked Kira, witnessing the look of surprise on the Archangel's new captain. "I know it sounds crazy but at this very moment, I believe this ship will need all the help it can get to fight off the four Gundams the Le Creuset Team has in their possession."

Shaking off the shock that she had just experienced, the Captain took it into consideration as he was right as they only have the Strike and the mysterious mobile suit known as the Snow Stalker while the Le Creuset Team had the Duel, the Buster, the Blitz and the Aegis. "Very well, I'll see what we can do…" she said, deciding that they needed to do something. "The only problem is we will need time to get it ready for combat and right now, it is time we don't have."

"I understand, but we won't know until we try…" explained Kira, thinking about how things went last time prior to getting the Freedom and how the Strike Rouge's early construction could help make defending the Archangel a bit easier than the first time at least. "I'll try and help out with that if you'd like."

"Okay, but don't push yourself too hard" the captain simply suggested, which he would keep in mind as he will need to head out into battle again as he has a feeling the Archangel would try to head for Artemis like it did before and that the Le Creuset Team would attempt to stop them along the way. "Is that all you have to tell me?"

"Actually…" he figured that she should at least know about this secret if to get it off his chest as well as possibly vent out the thought of having to fight his best friend once again, not something he enjoyed whatsoever. "You know the pilot of the Aegis, who you previously saw back at the factory district before we got into the Strike's cockpit?"

"Yes, but why are you…" she didn't finish what she was about to say as realization came in the back of her mind and saw that the expression on his face had changed the moment he asked about it. "You know him do you?"

A slow nod from Kira's head was her answer. "More than you could possibly imagine unfortunately" he spoke, though it was to the point that he was talking softly but wanted to make sure Murrue could hear what he is about to say. "His name is Athrun Zala, he's my best friend since childhood and we went to the same lunar prep-school before I moved to Heliopolis."

"Your best friend?" this truly caught the EA officer off-guard at this revelation and that she never knew that he had be friends with someone who was on the opposite side, though she figured that there was a reason why he didn't tell her before.

"Yes, I couldn't believe it when I saw that he was now part of the ZAFT military and to be honest, I'm not looking forward to having to fight against him…"

Murrue paid attention to his explanation, yet she was having a bit of a hard time trying to process that the pilot of the Aegis is not only the son of Patrick Zala of ZAFT's Surpreme Council but a close friend as well. "I understand that you have mixed feelings about this situation" she spoke, as if she wanted to better understand it herself. "However, protecting the Strike and the Archangel from the Le Creuset Team and getting them to Atlantic Federation HQ on the moon is our number-one priority."

Kira didn't say a word, as much as he wanted to protest, Murrue was right, more so with the fact that the Archangel has civilians onboard and before he could open his mouth, the captain spoke once more. "Don't worry, I'm not going to force you to kill him but make sure your emotions don't cloud your judgment and promise you'll at least do your best out there."

"Thank you," he felt a little bit better upon hearing that and he remembered something else to let her know as he didn't want High Command to find out about this when the Archangel gets to Alaska. "Oh and I appreciate it if our conversation about Athrun was kept to ourselves."

"Alright then, if that is what you want" said Murrue, deciding to head back to the bridge to discuss their plan of action with the rest of his crew and Kira let out a sigh of relief to have gotten that out of his system as he rejoined his friends.

* * *

Onboard the Vesalius, Rau was in his office as he was examining the footage of the Strike in action, he knew that the pilot would prove to be quite an obstacle should the machine remain with the new ship. "This is Athrun Zala reporting in!" The door slid open and Athrun soon entered. "You wanted to see me sir?"

"Yes, I have…" began Rau, turning to face his subordinate with a serious expression as he figured that now was as good a time to have a word with him. "Shiho has informed me that you have been rather troubled since the two of you returned to the ship."

Athrun bit his lower-lip, unsure of what he could respond with when his commander spoke once again. "She told me that you were near the Strike when it was activated, am I right?"

"I apologize for not mentioning it earlier, I was still in shock by that event and I failed to report it" explained the younger man, thinking back to his encounter with Kira back at the factory district in Heliopolis. "The final machine, I have a feeling on who the pilot is… my friend Kira Yamato. We attended the same lunar prep-school and he's a Coordinator."

"Oh?" Rau was surprised when he heard that turn of events and gestured for Athrun to continue his explanation.

"Yes sir, I never dreamed that we would meet again like this and I couldn't believe that he was capable of holding his own against you."

"I see; irony abounds in warfare" Rau remained serious and got off of his seat, the fact that Athrun is friends with the enemy pilot does intrigue him. "I don't blame you for being upset; I trust that you were very close to the pilot." He saw the redcoat nodding his head to confirm it. "Very well, I'm taking you off the next sortie; I think it's for the best…"

Athrun couldn't believe the masked-man's decision and tried to protest. "Commander, I…"

"You wouldn't be able to pull a gun at such a friend and I have no intention of putting you in that situation" Rau continued, wanting to make things perfectly clear with him and wanted his attention. "However even if he was your friend now that he might be an enemy, we must eliminate him and Russo as well. I'm sure you can understand that."

"Sir, Kira fails to see that he's being manipulated by the Naturals, brilliant as he is, he's also naive and good-natured, they're exploiting him but he's blind to it…" began Athrun, having a flashback of the day he gave Birdy to Kira years ago. "That's why I have to go back and try and reason with him. He's still a fellow Coordinator, I'm sure he'll come around to our way of thinking."

"I know how you feel" Rau took a glance at Athrun for a brief second and said with a frown. "However, what if he won't listen to you?"

Athrun lowered his head, not wanting things to go down to this should Kira not come to his senses and join their side. "If that should happen, I'll have no choice but to shoot him down myself…"

* * *

Back on the Archangel, Kira buttoned up the blue jacket of his Earth Alliance uniform as he felt a sense of nostalgia flashing before him due to his decision of volunteering to help the Archangel through this. "I never thought I'd be wearing this uniform again" he said to himself with Birdy landing onto his left shoulder. "To be honest, I kinda missed that."

"Kira!" Tolle's voice was heard from right behind him and he turned to see his friends joining him while donning familiar uniforms of the EA as well, especially Flay of all people, something he'd thought he would never see again. The only difference was that Jessie and Misha were in them as well though while they have the same pink uniform jacket as Flay and Mir, though Jessie wore a dark green skirt with black socks and Misha wore a purple skirt with white socks. "Not bad, not bad at all… though don't you think the ZAFT uniforms are cooler looking? We don't even get a rank or anything so these seem kind of lame."

"Now's not the time for that Tolle" Kira wasn't in the mood for this as right now they'll need to help the Archangel get into nearby EA territory since the ship is undermanned since leaving Heliopolis though he mentally commented that Flay looks lovely in her uniform. "You guys sure you want to go through with this, I don't want anything bad to happen to you because of it."

"Well we figured that since you're going to help out, we should at least do our part too and we wouldn't be allowed to join the bridge crew without enlisting ourselves" explained Tolle.

"He's right, you're our friend and we're all in this together no matter what" added Mir, the others agreed to this and made Kira think back to how they helped to bring an end to the war in the previous timeline then gave a light smile as it seemed to be inevitable. "We better head to the bridge; we will need to find out where we're headed."

The group left the change room together, more than ready to face the challenges ahead though to Kira, he was more determined than ever to protect not only his friends but to this time ensure the refugees won't be meeting an untimely end… more specifically, he also wanted to protect the girl he loved.

* * *

Silver Fang's Bridge

* * *

Andrew Waltfeld was having a sip of his coffee as he was waiting for someone to meet with him, better yet three fellow members of the Silver Tigers to be exact as a young man around 16 years old with cobalt blue-hair with a red headband around it, blood red eyes and wearing the elite uniform of the ZAFT redcoat arrived and with him were two female redcoats, one with bright red eyes like the young man's and violet hair flowing down her back with a dark blue-mini skirt to go with her uniform while the other had strange black-hair that turned white as it went down and her hair covered her right eye while her left was shown to be light blue and she had a silver skirt with her uniform. "I'm glad that you could make it Sasuke" he said the young man with a smile. "I trust you have been informed on Rengi's return."

"Yes I have, also neither of us expected for him to return with two unidentified mobile suits" began the blue-haired male known as Sasuke Blaze.

"Those mobile suits are known as the Z-Gundam and the MBF-P05 Astray Silver Frame" Andy explained to them while enjoying his coffee and watching the view of space from where he sat. "Rengi brought them onto the ship from Heliopolis a while back and a lovely young lady to boot."

"Wow so Rengi found himself a girlfriend huh?" the violet-haired girl Rin Canaver laughed a bit, she wanted to meet this girl he met sometime and see if she's enjoying her time with him though right now they have more important matters. "What's happening right now?"

"Right now, we're following the Vesalius and the Gamow," began Aisha, informing the three about what has been happening as of recently, including that Roux has joined them and how Rau's forces have four of the new machines belonging to the EA and how the Strike is the only one that they didn't get at all. "Right now we will wait and see what happens before we do anything."

"I see, well I highly doubt someone like Rau Le Creuset would let an important weapon remain in the hands of the Earth Alliance and it does make me wonder about how they'll take him on" frowned Sasuke, while he isn't happy that they won't be doing anything about it yet, he'll see if the remaining machine would be able to fend off the other four in battle.

"Who knows, we'll just have to wait and see" said the 16-year old Miyuki Star, yet should the Le Creuset Team go through with their next attack, at least it won't be inside of the colony and the others could agree with her that it would be better if the following battle takes place within space.

A/Ns: At last, the third chapter is completed and just in time too as it's almost the end of 2012 so I hope you have a wonderful New Year as I'll be continuing this fic sometime at mid-January. Take care.


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